Ford Motor Company has announced that it will join the First Movers Coalition, a global initiative to harness purchasing power and supply chains to create early markets for innovative clean energy technologies. 

“As part of the First Movers Coalition, we’re targeting the environmental impact of our supply-chain by investing in green steel and aluminium,” says Ford chief government affairs officer Chris Smith. 

More than 50 companies with a collective market value of about $8.5-trillion across five continents now make up the coalition to help commercialise zero-carbon technologies. 

For its part, Ford is committing to purchase at least 10% near-zero carbon steel and aluminium by 2030. 

The company says it is working to achieve carbon neutrality globally across its vehicles, operations and supply chain no later than 2050, and to reach science-based interim targets by 2035. 

Also, in order to “compete and win” in the new era of electric and connected vehicles, Ford says it plans to invest more than $50-billion globally from 2022 through 2026 to develop electric vehicles and the batteries that power them. 

“Reducing emissions to carbon neutral by 2050 is possible if we invest in the right technologies and bring them to scale within the next decade,” says Ford supply chain sustainability director Sue Slaughter. 

“By joining the First Movers Coalition, Ford is signalling to the market that we want to work with our suppliers to achieve commercially viable green steel and aluminium.”

Ford already recycles up to 9 000 t of aluminium each month at its Dearborn Stamping, Kentucky Truck and Buffalo Stamping facilities in the US.

Making recycled aluminium only takes around 5% of the energy needed to make new aluminium, says the US auto maker.

Led by the World Economic Forum (WEF) and the US government, the First Movers Coalition targets sectors such as aluminium, aviation, chemicals, concrete, shipping, steel and trucking, which are responsible for 30% of global emissions – a proportion expected to rise to more than 50% by mid-century without urgent progress on clean technology innovation. 

According to the WEF, aluminium represents 2% of global emissions.