DOE Releases Climate VISION Progress Report 2007

February 26, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) released the Climate Voluntary Innovative Sector Initiatives: Opportunities Now (VISION) Progress Report 2007, which reports on the actions taken by energy-intensive industries to improve greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions intensity of their operations from 2002 to 2006.

The power and energy-intensive industrial sectors improved their combined emissions intensity by 9.4% over the four year period and in 2006 actual GHG emissions for these sectors fell a combined 1.4%, according to the report.

Since the program launch in 2003, the Climate VISION partners report that they are making progress and many are ahead of schedule, according to the report.

Highlights for each sector include the following:

• Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers: From 2002 to 2005, alliance members reduced absolute carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by about 13% and reduced the emissions intensity, measured as CO2 per number of vehicles produced, of their U.S. facilities by nearly 3% in 2005.

• Aluminum Association: Direct process emissions per ton of production, including combined perfluorocarbon (PFC) and CO2 releases, decreased 56% from 1990 to 2005.

• American Chemistry Council: Between 1990 and 2006, the U.S. chemical industry’s GHG intensity improved by 34%. Total GHG emissions fell 7% since 1990 even while industry output rose 41%.
• American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA): From 2000 to 2004, AF&PA member companies collectively reduced their direct GHG emissions from 61.2 to 51.4 MMTCO2-eq, or about 16%. This translates to a 12% reduction in intensity of direct emissions from 0.514 to 0.453 tons of CO2 equivalent per ton of production.

• American Iron & Steel Institute: Energy intensity per ton of steel shipped improved by approximately 15% from 2002 to 2006. Since 1990, energy intensity is down about 29%.
• American Petroleum Institute: Petroleum refiners are on track to achieve their goal of a 10% improvement in energy efficiency over 2002 to 2012 with energy savings in 2006 equivalent to taking more than 528,000 cars off the road.

• The Business Roundtable: 70% of roundtable member companies are enrolled in Climate Responsible Environmental Steps, Opportunities to Lead by Voluntary Efforts (RESOLVE), which is the roundtable's initiative to help companies develop and improve GHG management programs.

• Industrial Minerals Association - North America: Companies participating in the GHG program report they have reduced their energy-related CO2 emissions by an average of just over 15% from 2000 through 2005.

• International Magnesium Association: Under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) SF6 Emission Reduction Partnership for the Magnesium Industry, magnesium industry partners reduced direct emissions of the strongest GHG, sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), by 0.8 MMTCO2-eq in 2005. The goal is to completely eliminate the partnership's SF6 emissions by the year 2010.

• National Lime Association: Between 2002 and 2006, the energy-related CO2 intensity of lime products produced by National Lime Association (NLA) member companies was reduced by an aggregate of about 3%.

• National Mining Association: Methane emissions from coal mines declined about 6% from 2000 to 2005.

• Portland Cement Association: Preliminary data indicates that U.S. cement manufacturers are making “substantial” progress towards achieving and perhaps exceeding their goal of a 10% reduction in CO2 emissions per ton of cementitious product produced or sold from 1990 to 2020.

• Power Partners: The electric power industry is on track to meets its target of reducing GHG emissions intensity by the equivalent of 3 to 5% from the 2000-2002 base-year average over a 10-year period as the 2005 GHG emissions intensity of Power Partners was 2.5% lower than the base-year average.

• Semiconductor Industry Association: In 2005, the EPA’s semiconductor industry partners reduced direct emissions of high global-warming-potential fluorinated compound gases such as PFCs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), SF6 and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3) by 7.7 MMTCO2-eq.

The emissions intensity reductions reported by the power and industrial sectors is also reflected in GHG intensity data for the U.S. economy as a whole, said the DOE.

In its Emissions of Greenhouse Gases 2006 report, the DOE's Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimated that from 2005 to 2006 U.S. GHG intensity fell by 4.2%, which is the largest annual decrease since 1990 and in 2006 actual emissions declined 1.5% below the 2005 total while the U.S. economy grew 2.9%.

Climate VISION is a public-private partnership initiative launched Feb. 12, 2003 to contribute to the goal of reducing GHG intensity - measured as emissions per unit of gross domestic production - by 18% from 2002 to 2012, according to the DOE.

Climate VISION is comprised of business associations and trade groups representing 13 energy-intensive industrial sectors and the Business Roundtable, which collectively account for about 40 to 45% of U.S. GHG emissions, said the DOE.

Each Climate VISION partner made a commitment to improve the energy efficiency or GHG emissions intensity of its sector, said the DOE. These partners represent energy-intensive industry sectors including:

• Oil and gas.
• Electricity generation.
• Coal and mineral production and mining.
• Manufacturing (automobiles, cement, iron and steel, magnesium, aluminum, chemicals and semiconductors).
• Forestry products.

Agencies participating in Climate VISION include the DOE, U.S. Department of Transportation and Agriculture and the EPA.

Source: U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).