This report was commissioned by ARENA, and prepared by Deloitte, in consultation with Alcoa, Rio Tinto and South32. It considers the technical, commercial and market implications for emerging low emissions alumina refining and identifies key pathways to emissions reduction for one of Australia’s hard to abate industries.

All Australian alumina refiners recognise the need to reduce their emissions and are making substantial headway to address Australia’s climate challenge.

At the core of this roadmap are four key themes for decarbonisation that could transform the way refineries consume and use energy by enabling the uptake of renewables and removing the use of fossil fuels. Each of these themes should be considered during future design and planning of decarbonisation initiatives.

The roadmap provides a framework for future policy and investment decisions and serves as a call to action for public and private sectors to collaboratively transition a ‘hard-to-abate’ sector into an industry at the forefront of the transition to net zero.