中国车企开启低碳排放钢铝采购，“绿色溢价”亟待多方合力分摊

Chinese Automakers Embark on Low-Carbon Steel and Aluminum Procurement:Cost Sharing of the "Green Premium" IsUrgently Needed Institute of Public & Environmental AffairsJuly 2026 Since the signing of the Paris Agreement, the international community’s joint effortshaveresulted in global renewable energy expanding at an accelerated pace andcatastrophic temperature-rise scenarios being mitigated. However, extreme weathereventscontinue tooccur frequently worldwide, temperature increases have repeatedlyreached new highs, and the climate situation remains extremely severe. Ofparticular concern is that total carbon emissions have increased rather thandecreased, while high-emission industries such as steel and aluminum have made slowprogress.How to enable industries such as automobiles to release low-carbonprocurement price signals and guide raw-material supply chains such as steel andaluminum to accelerate decarbonization has become key to breaking the emissions-reduction bottleneck. Research12shows that, for new energy vehicles represented by electric, hybrid, andfuel-cell vehicles, roughly half of lifecycle carbon emissions come from productionprocesses,includingraw-material extraction, component manufacturing, complete-vehicleassembly,and outbound transportation.Among these,the raw-materialacquisition stage, including steel and aluminum alloys, accounts for the largest shareof carbon emissions. As the automotive industry accelerates its transition towardelectrification and the trend toward larger and heavier vehicles becomes the norm, thefocus of automotive lifecycle decarbonization is shifting toward production processes,especially the manufacturing ofraw materials such as steel and aluminum. ChineseAutomakersIssuedValue-chainCarbonNeutralityCommitments,with Geely and LeapmotorSettingTargets forRecycledSteel andAluminum Promoting upstreamsupplychaindecarbonization is both a priority and a challenge.Although Chinese automakers began taking climate action relatively late, 13 havepublicly disclosed value-chain carbon neutrality commitments. Among them, Lotus Technologyplans to achieve carbon neutrality by 2038, while the target yearsdisclosed by most otherChineseautomakers are 2045 or 2047. Seven have disclosed carbon reduction targets for supply chain or product lifecycle.Among them, Geely Auto, Seres, XPeng, and Changan Automobile disclosed 2025progress. Table 1Scope 3 Targets Disclosed by Automakers It is worth noting that no climate targets disclosed by Chinese automakers have yetbeen validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Xiaomi disclosed in its 2025 annual report that,“greenhouse gas emissions fromemerging businesses such as smart EV have gradually stabilized following thecompletion of production ramp-up. We will set appropriate baseline years andcarbon reduction targets for thesebusinesses in due course. The targets foremerging businesses will be aligned with those of existing businesses”. Since Geely Automobile firstcommittedto promoting the use ofrecycled steelandaluminum in parts and components that canbe made from recycled materials fornew modelsin its 2024 ESG report,it has continued to disclose the share of recycledmaterials used in seven models on sale, including Galaxy and Lynk & Co. Comparedwith 2024, more models have met the recycled-material usage targetsas disclosed inthe 2025 ESG report. Leapmotor proposed for the first time targets touse20%recycled steeland 30%recycled aluminumin new vehicles by 2030butdid not disclose theprogress so far. By contrast, Mercedes-Benz (China), General Motors, and BMW have all previously putforward explicit emissions-reduction targets for steel, and General Motors has also setan emissions-reduction target for aluminum. In theirrecentreports, these automakersno longer disclose relevant targets, neither explaining whether the original targetsremain in effect nor continuing to disclose progress onlowcarbonprocurement withsteel and/or aluminum suppliers. Leading Chinese Automakers Disclose Low-Carbon Steel and AluminumProcurement,ButtheScale and Quantitative Disclosure Need Improvement 18 Chinese automakers have incorporated energy conservation and emissionsreduction, greenhouse gas accounting and reporting into supplier managementrequirements, or have incentivized suppliers to carry out emissions reduction actionsthrough capacity-building or order allocation.11disclosed that they have collectedsuppliers’ measured data; for example, Leapmotordisclosed that it has establisheda low-carbon database, collected carbon emissions data for key components, andworked with raw material suppliers to incorporate recycled steel and aluminummaterials into the database, providing a basis for subsequent low-carbon materialselection. With respect to emissions reductions in the upstreamsteel andaluminumsupplychain,themain requirements currently put forward by automakers to suppliers whenprocuringlow-carbon steel and aluminum materials include advancin