The Bayer Group has long assigned climate protection top priority and is continuing its activities to improve its greenhouse gas performance. The company welcomes the goal of current government negotiations in Nairobi to achieve a successful global climate protection policy once the commitment period defined in the Kyoto Protocol has come to its conclusion in 2012.
By reducing direct greenhouse gas emissions since the beginning of the 1990s by around 70 percent, Bayer has already exceeded the targets of the Kyoto Protocol and the German Bundestag (which were to reduce emissions by 25 percent through 2005 and 50 percent through 2020).
?With this significant decrease in greenhouse gas emissions we have made a sustained contribution to protecting the climate. We have achieved a good half of these savings by using state-of-the-art technology, closing old facilities and deploying energy-efficient power units. The other half has been possible through changes in the portfolio,? says Dr. Wolfgang Plischke, Bayer Management Board Member responsible for Innovation, Technology and Environment. ?Bayer?s climate strategy also embraces developing resource-saving products and responding appropriately to changing markets.?
One example of process innovations in the Group is an energy-saving process already introduced in Germany and China to manufacture chlorine for plastics production. This is based on the oxygen depolarized cathode method and brings energy savings of 30 percent. Bayer materials can be found in a variety of applications that shape our daily lives and have a direct influence on the conservation of resources and energy efficiency. Examples include insulating material in refrigerators and lightweight fuel-saving materials in vehicles. Heat insulating materials in buildings also offer considerable potential for saving energy and thereby reducing emissions.
Bayer sees the use of sustainable raw materials and biomass as offering possibilities for future markets that will reflect the challenges of climate change. And the key forward-looking technologies of biotechnology and nanotechnology can be used to utilize renewable energy sources more effectively.
Bayer has received numerous awards from independent bodies for its climate-related performance. Last year, The Climate Group conferred its first Low Carbon Leaders Award on Bayer, which was one of only five enterprises in the world and the only German company to win this accolade. And in 2006 Bayer was once again included in the first global climate protection index, the Climate Leadership Index, which was set up in 2004 by investors of the Carbon Disclosure Project. In this index Bayer was honored as ?best in class? and as best company in the chemical sector.