1 February 2005
Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Greenhouse Gas Emissions Questionnaire
We request
as full a reply as possible to the following questions by no later than
31st May 2005. Please send your response electronically, in English,
to the Project Coordinator at info@cdproject.net. If you already publish the relevant
information, please indicate for each question how this can be accessed.
If at this stage you can only provide indicative information we would
still welcome this; “a best guess” is more valuable to us than no
response. If you are unable to answer any of these questions please
state the reasons why. This is the third CDP information request (CDP3);
for previous respondents, please highlight developments and trends since
CDP2.
“Yes”: Climate change is an important
global issue and our energy consumption accounts for about 4% of total
consumption in Japan. Consequently we recognize that business
activities do have influence on environment. If 3,000 JPY/ tons-C environmental
(carbon) tax is introduced, there is a risk such that the steel industry
in total has to bear about 150 billion JPY costs (about 50 billion JPY
for Nippon Steel). On the other hand, by applying our advanced technologies
which have accomplished world top-level energy efficiency, we have opportunities
to acquire CO2 emission credits from emission reduction projects abroad
by participating in CDM (Clean Development Mechanism), which is to be
implemented for developing countries, and JI (Joint Implementation),
which is to be implemented among developed countries, defined in the
Kyoto Protocol as a Kyoto mechanism.
Details of the current strategy:
Nippon Steel has already accomplished world top-level energy efficiency
for steel manufacturing. Nevertheless, we take actions for global warming
by pursuing extreme limit. With coordination with a society, we have
been taking actions to curb CO2 emissions by providing high functional
materials such as high-strength steel plates and high-efficiency electromagnetic
steel plates and by supplying by-products such as slag for cement. We
are taking measures to make residential and commercial sector, such
as offices and other, and transportation sector, such as logistics,
more efficient to prevent global warming. In addition, we are internationally
promoting transfers of energy saving technologies to contribute to CO2
reduction in a global scale (the Kyoto mechanism) and pursuing technological
development for CO2 reduction (development of hydrogen energy, CO2 separation
and sequestration) from a mid- and long-term viewpoint.
Measures taken to the date: Nippon Steel accomplished more than 20% energy savings between the first oil shock and around 1990 by inventing continuous operational process, improving efficiency of facilities and recovering wasted energy. Later in 1996, we established a voluntary action plan to prevent global warming to reduce energy consumption by 10% in 2010, relative to 1990 levels. In 2003, we accomplished a 7.1% reduction. CO2 emissions in 2003 were about 61 million tons-CO2/year, which was about 6% reduction, relative to 1990 levels.
In 2003, we had 18.85 million tons
of by-products of which 18.48 million tons were recycled, constituting
about 98% of the total by-products. In addition, we are promoting use
of by-products generated from a society such as waste plastics and waste
tires as raw materials. In 2003, we recycled about 140,000 tons/year
of waste plastics and 50,000 tons/year of waste tires
“Yes”
Vice President in charge of Environmental Affairs (Chairman of the Environmental Committee)
(Remark)
The President of Nippon Steel serves as a vice president of environmental affairs (chairman of the global warming task force) of the Japan Business Federation and plays a leading role in Japan’s actions against global warming
Nippon Steel has been
engaged in hydrogen energy project as an alternative to fossil fuels
and developing “Separation and storage of CO2” technology.
Additionally, our most advanced technologies contribute to resource
and energy saving for instance, almost 100% recycle of waste plastics
by the coke oven chemical materials process and waste tire recycle by
steelmaking process. We believe that they would contribute to
our revenue when they are commercialised.
1. Hydrogen energy project;
Since 2001, Nippon Steel has been working on the five-year national
project, “the development and verification of a technology enabling
efficient hydrogen production using sensible heat emitted during the
steelmaking processes”. This project centers on the technology
that allows hydrogen to be produced from coke oven gas (COG) by combining
heat emitted in the steel making process, ceramic films for oxygen separation
and catalysts needed to trigger reactions for hydrogen separation. In
addition, verification tests are in progress at the facilities for the
development of liquefied hydrogen production, which were completed at
Nippon Steel’s Kimitsu Works in March 2004 as an integral part of
the hydrogen and fuel-cell verification project administered by the
Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. This project involves
the production of liquefied from COG for use by fuel-cell powered vehicles
and its delivery to the Ariake hydrogen station. Nippon
Steel’s Nagoya Works supply hydrogen to the World Expo Aichi 2005
for fuel-cell powered vehicles. Nippon Steel is committed to the
creation of a hydrogen-based society by tapping its engineering capabilities
to mastermind the entire range of hydrogen supply systems, including
hydrogen production facilities, and by demonstrating its excellence
as a manufacturer of materials by developing materials for the transportation
and storage of liquefies hydrogen. (Please refer to Nippon Steel Sustainability
Report 2004, page 12)
2. Technological development
for the separation and storage of CO2; As a participant in the R&D
Project for CO2 Geological Sequestration promoted by the Research Institute
of Innovative Technology for the Earth (RITE), Nippon Steel has extended
cooperation primarily in the engineering sphere to the verification
test for CO2 injection. From July 2003 to March 2005, the verification
test called for an injection of about 10,000 metric tons of compressed
CO2 over a period of one and a half years (or 20 metric tons per day)
into an aquifer in Nagaoya City, Niigata Prefecture. Nippon Steel has
also been involved, since fiscal year 2004, in a project for the technological
development of CO2 separation and recovery using low-grade waste heat.
In order to further contribute to the development of practical innovative
technologies against global warming, Nippon Steel provides the process
gas and low-grade waste heat in the steel plants to encourage low-cost
CO2 separation technologies. (Please refer to Nippon Steel Sustainability
Report 2004, page 12)
3. Almost 100% recycle
of waste-plastic by using the coke oven chemical materials process:
Nippon Steel is seeking effective means of utilizing waste plastics
used in the iron making process. If achieves, this will contribute toward
resource conservation, energy savings and lower CO2 emissions while
also helping prevent global warming. At the Nagoya and Kimitsu Works,
waste plastics have been recycled since 2000 using the company’s coke
oven chemical materials process. Nippon Steel’s waste plastic
recycling network now covers the entire nation, with the addition of
similar facilities in the Muroran and Yawata Works in April 2002 and
Oita Works in April 2005. In fiscal year 2004, the four locations
collectively processed 160,000 tons of waste plastics and in fiscal
year 2005 Nippon Steel will process 160,000 tons of waste plastics and
packaging out of 470,000 tons which local governments collect from households.
The volume of waste containers and packaging intended for recycling
is expected to increase. The steel industry, which is equipped
to accept the largest portion of such plastic waste, has to assume greater
responsibilities in society. Decisions have been made by the steel
industry to set up an adequate structure to accommodate one million
tons of waste plastics by 2010. (Please refer to Nippon Steel
Sustainability Report 2004, page 20)
4. Converting waste tires into recyclable resources by utilizing steelmaking process: Nippon Steel’s waste tire recycling facility at Hirohata work now covers the entire nation processing about 12% of waste tires (some 120,000 ton) of about a million tires which are discarded annually. Despite the fact that waste tires had been recycled as a fuel since it was difficult to be processed in any other way, Nippon steel have combined different recycling process, the cold iron-resource melting furnace (SMP), steelmaking process and gasification recycling facilities using external heating rotary kilns, which enables to recycle massive amount of waste tires almost 100% within the same site
To convert steel cord,
carbon, and rubber which are constituent of waste tires exhaustively
into resources and fuels for steel products by utilizing steelmaking
process, the cold iron-resource melting furnace (SMP) is world’s first
technology. Furthermore, external heating rotary kilns pyrolyzes
waste tires into gases, carbon residues, oil and iron wires. By combining
these two technologies, Nippon Steel enables to process 120,000 ton
of waste tire within the same site, which unprecedented recycling technology.
(Please refer to Nippon Steel Sustainability Report 2004, page 19)
[Remark]
Resource saving effects when combined following measures; creating steelmaking material using SMP (60,000 ton/year since 1999) and recycling of waste tires using gasification facility (60,000 ton/year since July 2004)
Above mentioned resource
saving effects are equivalent to oil 100,000 k l/year which represents
five-month energy consumption of Himeji city where 480,000 people inhabits.
“Yes”
Nippon Steel thinks Japan should utilize Kyoto Mechanism in order to achieve the targets set by Kyoto Protocol. We believe that projects such as CDM and JI and international emissions trading would contribute to worldwide prevention of global warming. It is important to urge CDM committee to approve projects with CO2 reducing effect such as energy saving and heat efficiency improvement as CDM projects as well as designing a strategy to utilize Kyoto Mechanism. It is also important to prepare for getting a credit as a safety net for the compliance with Kyoto Protocol.
However, steel industry
in Japan has already accomplished world top-level energy efficiency
by continuous energy saving effort since oil crisis in 1973. Furthermore,
unlike EU Japan is surrounded by the countries without any duties to
reduce emissions set by Kyoto Protocol. Despite these conditions
if the national emission trading which allocate GHGs emissions limit
to each Japanese company is introduced and reinforcement of regulation
by agreement with government is done, competitive conditions will be
distorted compared to neighboring nations without duties. We need
to recognize that this would lead Japanese steel industry to lose its
competitiveness in the international markets under the uneven competing
conditions.
Measures taken to the date: In January 2004 Nippon Steel completed a blast furnace hot-stove exhaust heat recovery system for Tata Steel in India. Commissioned as New Energy and Development Organization (NEDO)’s model project for energy conservation, the facilities are now operational. The energy efficiency attained by the facilities, converted into the amount of CO2 reduced, is estimated to be around 22,000 tons of CO2 per year.
For the same steel plant, Nippon Steel is working for a CDM-based project approval for the creation of Coke Dry Quenching system, with an expected CO2 reduction 140,000 tons per year.
Nippon Steel has decided
to join two carbon funds. Decision has been made that Japan Iron and
Steel Federation (JISF) will fund $ 5million for Japan GHG Reduction
Fund. It has been also decided that JISF will fund $ 5million
for Bio Carbon Fund of World Bank. Nippon Steel is a major member of
JISF and will be responsible for about one third of its payment in each
fund.
“Yes”
Details: We are taking measures such as development of operational technologies, development and supply of new products which contribute to a society, and promotion of recycling based on a concept of LCA (Life Cycle Assessment), which evaluates environmental efficiencies by taking all processes into account (= life cycle) including excavation of raw materials, transportation, production of raw materials, parts manufacturing, assembling, product use, recycling and disposal. We play a leading role in a national project, “LCA Energy Evaluation Research Committee”, organized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, which many industrial organizations that are users of steel and energy-related engineers participate in. We measure effectiveness of typical high-functional steel products to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from LCA viewpoint. According to our research, reduction effects of high-functional steel products for automobiles, ships, rail vehicles, construction, electric transformer, and power generation boiler are estimated to be about 6.5 million tons-CO2/year. This estimate is reported to Industrial Structure Council, Steel Working Group of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.
(Reference: “Research on Contribution of Steel Products to Society-wide Energy Conservation from LCA Perspectives ”
Japan Iron and Steel Federation website: http://www.jisf.or.jp/energy/index.htm
The Institute of Energy Economics, Japan website: http://eneken.ieej.or.jp/data/pdf/462.pdf)
In addition to this, Nippon Steel recycles and provides slag, by-products generated during the steel manufacturing process by converting them into materials for cement, roadbeds, aggregates concrete and materials for civil engineering. Blast furnace cement which uses blast furnace slag as a raw material accounts for more than 20% of total cement production in Japan. Blast furnace cement can omit quenching and burning process compared to ordinary cement production process which enables to reduce 43% of energy consumption and 41% of CO2 emissions. Please refer to Nippon Steel Sustainability Report 2004, page 17.
Japan Iron and Steel Federation website: http://www.jisf.or.jp/energy/index.htm
“Yes”
In order to streamline logistics, we are taking actions to reduce transportation distance, improve loading ratio and optimize transportation means. While measuring CO2 generation from transportation sector, we take countermeasures against global warming. For domestic transportation, we use marine transportation as a main mean of transportation (about 85%) and starting to shift from truck to railway (modal shift) as well.
In addition, we keep dialog on environmental issues with Rio Tinto, one of our main suppliers of raw materials. We exchange data on environmental performance. We know that the greenhouse gas emissionsof Rio Tinto was about 25 million tons-CO2 (2003). We are considering exchanging information with other suppliers as well.
“Yes”
Reduction target: Nippon Steel established a voluntary action plan to prevent global warming in 1996 to reduce energy consumption by 10% in 2010, relative to 1990 levels, and have achieved a steady performance. In 2003, we have accomplished a 7.1% reduction. CO2 emissions in 2003 were about 61 million tons-CO2, which was about 6% reduction, relative to 1990 levels. In 2003 we spent about 8 billion yen on energy saving measures and regarded the decrease in energy consumption as associated saving which is shown in Nippon Steel Sustainability Report 2004, on page 8.
In 2003, we recycled 18.48 million tons of by-products, which was about 98% of the total 18.55 million tons of by-product generated. In addition, for efficient use of energy and resources, we are taking new measures for energy saving by recycling by-products generated from a society such as waste plastics and waste tires and use them in a process of steel production as raw materials. In 2003, we recycled about 140,000 tons/year of waste plastics and 50,000 tons/year of waste tires. We aim to increase the numbers in the future. In 2003 we spent about 5 billion yen on resource recycling and regarded the decrease in water consumption and flow and various resources usage which is shown in Nippon Steel Sustainability Report 2004, “Energy and resources” at the beginning, “Risk Management for water quality” on page 25.
These environment conservation activities have effects in every part of the supply chains beyond our corporate boundaries and consequently we do not abstract some of them and convert into money as economical effect.
As for international actions, based on a consensus that the steel industry has a major role for sustainable development in the 21st century, Nippon Steel as well as other steel companies in the world (IISI: International Iron and Steel Institute) are promoting CO2 Breakthough-Program from 2003 having a long-term viewpoint.
(Reference: IISI (International Iron and Steel Institute),
website http://www.worldsteel.org/news/43)
“Yes”
1 We evaluate our progress in energy saving by using energy base unit per steel production.
2 We have set the year of oil crisis, 1973 as a base and achieved 21.8% of improvement by 1990 and 28.9% by 2003 (7.1% of improvement from 1990 to 2003).
3 Our target is to achieve
10% of energy saving by 2010 compared with 1990. The apparent
energy base unit of 2003 is 24GJ/t (= 729PJ/30,140,000t).
We consumed 21,300,000 tonnes of coals, 830,000kilo litre of petroleum fuels and 2,480,000,000 KWH of utility power to produce 30140000 t of steel in 2003. These costs account for circa 7% of our sales.
1 Please specify the methodology and boundaries used for measuring emissions e.g. www.ghgprotocol.org. Explain if these data are audited and/or externally verified. If responding for the first time please supply data for the last three annual measurement cycles.
2 Carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs), Perfluorcarbons (PFCs) and Sulphur Hexafluoride (SF6).
3 For example, if you are a financial services company, do you take into account the emissions related risks and/or opportunities of the companies you invest in, lend to, or insure.