Clariant, a focused, sustainable and innovative specialty chemical company, has announced it is upgrading its ambitions for enabling a sustainable future. After establishing a dedicated transformational unit in 2020 to accelerate its sustainability transformation, the company now follows that up by committing to new 2030 targets to reduce CO2 emissions in line with the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

The new targets, which have been officially validated by the SBTi, set out ambitious absolute emission reductions in the company’s operations and supply chain. Between 2019 and 2030, Clariant targets a 40% absolute reduction in scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and a 14% absolute reduction in scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions, thereby striving for the level of decarbonization required to keep global temperature increase to well below 2°C.

“Sustainability is one of Clariant’s five strategic pillars and guides the path of our transformation into a leading specialty chemicals company. Our new targets reflect our commitment and responsibility toward enabling a more sustainable future. Innovation and transformation are the two vital elements that will lead us to success,” said Bernd Hoegemann, Chief Transformation Officer at Clariant.

Climate change represents a necessity to act and an enormous opportunity for the chemical industry to develop the innovative and sustainable solutions needed to reduce emissions and enable significant reductions in other sectors so that the world gets on a trajectory in line with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

“We congratulate Clariant for setting emission reduction targets in line with climate science and the goals of the Paris Agreement,” said Cynthia Cummis, Director of Private Sector Climate Mitigation at World Resources Institute, one of the Science Based Targets initiative partners. “By setting targets that are grounded in climate science, Clariant is setting themselves up for success in the transition to a net-zero economy”.