• The global economic environment
• Demand in automotive – what are the opportunities and risks?
• Recycled metal – how fast can it grow?
• Longer term investment requirements for aluminium smelters  Alex Christopher, Senior Analyst, Aluminium

Voluntary standards systems like ASI were originally developed to address critical ESG-type issues that were not consistently regulated, or only subject to ‘soft law’. Governments are increasingly adopting more binding regulations for these issues (often driven by geopolitical or domestic policy as much as sustainability outcomes.  With regulations on conflict minerals, critical raw minerals, batteries, green claims, due diligence, corporate sustainability reporting and more, companies have a lot of new compliance frameworks to navigate.

• Increasing supplier questionnaires
• Mandatory reporting disclosures
• Proliferation of duplicative or divergent initiatives

How can companies navigate this space using current and emerging tools? Is it possible to harmonise such frameworks? And what are the roles of different actors along the value chain and across the industry to promote transparency while reducing bureaucracy.

At a time when net zero targets and low carbon product claims are being met with increasing scepticism, this panel will explore the importance of data and transparency in supporting decision-making, and the role that different actors across the value chain can play in driving real-world change. Changeable political, market and policy landscapes have also influenced the global aluminium industry’s decarbonisation efforts in recent times and so the panel will also examine if the ambitious, Paris-aligned trajectories set out for the sector just a few years ago can still be met in an ever more complex environment.

At a time when net zero targets and low carbon product claims are being met with increasing scepticism, this panel will explore the importance of data and transparency in supporting decision-making, and the role that different actors across the value chain can play in driving real-world change. Changeable political, market and policy landscapes have also influenced the global aluminium industry’s decarbonisation efforts in recent times and so the panel will also examine if the ambitious, Paris-aligned trajectories set out for the sector just a few years ago can still be met in an ever more complex environment.

As customer demand for higher recycled content continues to grow, the aluminium industry must enhance its approach to circularity. With rising volumes of unsorted scrap on one side and the increasing need for clean scrap on the other, this panel will examine the essential role of sorting, closed-loop recycling, upcycling infrastructure, designing recycling-friendly alloys, and improved scrap flow tracing in building a more sustainable future. By analysing the latest data and technologies, panellists will explore current solutions and future requirements, ensuring that circularity efforts support both industry decarbonization goals and the sustainability ambitions of their customers.

The global nature-positive goal is to halt and reverse the destruction of nature by 2030 with a full recovery of a resilient biosphere by 2050. Science-based targets are still under intense discussion, but are starting to take shape in the form of financial disclosure frameworks (such as TNFD and SBTN) and regulatory requirements on industry (e.g. CSDDD, CSRD, EU Nature Restoration Law) . Importantly, such metrics are focused not only on businesses’ direct impacts but also those of their supply chains.  With nature and biodiversity so locally-specific and with its supply chains so complex and global, how can the aluminium sector contribute meaningfully to nature-positive outcomes? This session will explore the emerging nature-related metrics and frameworks as well as company implementation experiences, lessons learned and opportunities to focus on positive outcomes, not only on compliance.