The London Metal Exchange recently reiterated its willingness to facilitate spot trading of low carbon aluminium.
While not a new concept for the exchange, it would serve two important purposes. First, it would provide more transparent, digitalized data on the specification of its aluminium brands and determine whether people are actually paying more for low carbon metal.
Second, it would provide an additional tick in the responsible sourcing box for the exchange, which has launched an initiative designed to build on the core requirements of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) principles in requiring minimum standards and transparency from its brands.
Large producers such as Alcoa, Norsk Hydro, Rio Tinto and UC Rusal have been producing metal with a low carbon footprint, nicknamed 'green aluminium,' for the past several years. They are building on the work of the Aluminium Stewardship Initiative (ASI), which began around a decade ago and now has several performance and chain-of-custody standards applicable to the entire supply chain.
The...