E-commerce giant Alibaba Group promises carbon neutrality in its operations by 2030

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding aims to become carbon neutral in its operations by 2030, it announced on Friday.It is the latest technology giant to make a solid commitment to supporting the country’s 2060 net-zero emissions goal.The company, which owns this newspaper, also introduced what it called its “Scope 3+” target to eliminate 1.5 gigatons of carbon emissions across its entire business ecosystem by 2035.“We aspire to be a force for positive, innovative change in society. Our ESG strategy is predicated on our mission to be a good company that will live for 102 years, and it is the vital foundation for Alibaba’s future development,” said Daniel Zhang, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group on the company’s Investor Day on Friday.\nAlibaba is aiming for carbon neutrality for Scope 1 and 2 emissions – direct greenhouse gas emissions from owned or controlled sources, and indirect emissions from the generation of purchased electricity, steam, heating, or cooling – by 2030. It aims to reduce by half the carbon intensity of Scope 3 emissions across its entire value chain in the same time frame.In 2020, Alibaba Group’s total greenhouse gas emissions were 9.514 million tons, which included 510 thousand tons from Scope 1 emissions, 3.71 million tons from Scope 2, and 5.294 million tons from Scope 3, according to the company’s Carbon Neutrality Action Report released on Friday.As China’s biggest cloud service provider, with an almost 40 per cent market share in the third quarter of 2021, Alibaba has set higher targets for Alibaba Cloud. The unit is striving for carbon neutrality by 2030 in all three scopes, according to the company.In addition, the e-commerce giant said it will leverage its influence as a platform operator to mobilise actions and behavioural changes among its consumers, merchants and partners in China and around the world under its Scope 3+ initiative.According to Alibaba, Scope 3+ refers to the emissions generated by a broader range of participants in the platform’s ecosystem outside the Scopes 1, 2 and 3. The company initiated a “1.5 Gigatons for 1.5°C” project, committing to help cut out a total of 1.5 gigatons of greenhouse gas emissions in its entire business ecosystem by 2035.“We believe the use of digital platforms can play a significant role in empowering a low carbon circular economic model that can lead to achieving the 1.5-degree target of the Paris Agreement,” said Dr Chen Long, vice-president of Alibaba Group and chair of Alibaba’s Sustainability Steering Committee.\n“The concept of ‘Scope 3+’ is based on the potential of leveraging our digital platforms to influence and advocate for low carbon products, services and behaviour among a wider group of stakeholders in our ecosystem, and share our energy-efficient technologies and innovative business tools with customers and business partners to reduce the carbon footprint together,” said Chen.Hangzhou-headquartered Alibaba said it joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), along with more than 1,000 other global companies, to set a science-based climate target, and took a systematic and science-based approach to plan and manage its decarbonisation initiatives.China announced last September its goal of reaching peak carbon emissions by 2030, and achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.Internet giant Baidu said in June it would aim for carbon neutrality by 2030.\nOthers, including Tencent and telecoms providers China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, also publicly announced they will work towards carbon neutrality, but have yet to officially set deadlines.Alibaba said it will leverage energy-saving and efficiency-improving technologies to reduce emissions and transform its energy structure to promote renewables usage. It will also explore carbon removal technologies. The company will prioritise carbon reduction over removal, and removal over offset, Alibaba said on Friday.During the company’s recent Singles’ Day shopping festival, Alibaba said it used green computing technologies to increase the operational efficiency of its data centres and reduce its environmental impact.The company’s mini programme, Ant Forest, has also helped users of its Alipay app plant more than 326 million trees in the past five years.Alibaba also announced a three-tier environmental, social and governance (ESG) framework to oversee its carbon neutrality targets and broader ESG goals.