In order to accelerate scientific carbon reductions for corporations, after receiving a leadership level score of A- in the CDP Climate Change Evaluation this month, CHIMEI also actively joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), becoming the first petrochemical company in Taiwan to do so. With “Net Zero by 2050” as its goal, CHIMEI will propose short-term (2030) and long-term (2050) carbon reduction roadmaps within one year (the official requirement of STBi is 2 years).

SBTi is global organization founded by CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wide Fund for Nature. It represents one of the commitments of the We Mean Business Coalition. The aim of the Initiative is to encourage corporations to formulate longer term and more ambitious carbon reduction targets and to respond to the “Paris Agreement”, in order to limit global temperature rise to well-below 2°C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit warming to 1.5°C.

There are 5 major phases for corporations when setting “Science-Based Targets”: Commit--proposing the commitment, Develop--setting the targets, Submit--submitting the targets to SBTi for verification, Communicate--communicating the targets to stakeholders, Disclose--disclosing carbon emission levels each year and tracking the progress of target fulfillment. After undergoing the official review by SBTi this month, CHIMEI has been listed as a “committed” corporation on the official website and has completed the first phase. As of December 2021, there are 61 companies related to the global chemicals industry who have participated in SBTi. CHIMEI is one of these companies and is also the first petrochemical company in Taiwan to participate.

Following this, CHIMEI will formulate the most challenging short-term and long-term targets: The short-term target is a temperature increase of less than 1.5°C before 2030, and the long-term target is Net-Zero by 2050. CHIMEI will attempt to submit the complete emission reduction strategy to SBTi for review within a year (the official requirement is 2 years).

By upholding the green vision of “Clean & Green”, CHIMEI actively responds to global environmental sustainability issues. According to its CDP climate change evaluation results, which were better than the industry average, CHIMEI’s efforts in response to climate change issues have achieved significant results and received affirmation in recent years. Because CHIMEI has completed its comprehensive corporate greenhouse gas inventory, the next step will focus on the planning of emission reduction strategies and implementing the action plans for carbon emission scopes 1 to 3. Among which, regarding scope 1 (direct emissions) and scope 2 (indirect emissions), CHIMEI will completely review its room for reductions. It will strengthen its reductions through energy conservations in manufacturing, establishing or using renewable energy, developing and promoting carbon reducing and recycled products, introducing biomass materials, investing in and developing carbon capturing and recycling technologies and chemical recycling. As for scope 3 (emissions that are not attributed to the company or controllable), CHIMEI will actively work with its suppliers to formulate future reduction targets together.