CATL's EV battery plants to become carbon neutral this year, founder says
'This year, all CATL battery factories will achieve carbon neutrality,' Robin Zeng Yuqun, the firm's billionaire founder and chairman, said before the company's debut on the Hong Kong stock exchange on Tuesday. 'This listing signifies our deeper integration into the global capital markets and marks a new milestone in our mission to drive the global zero-carbon economy.'
He said the company would offer its technologies and solutions to its partners globally to promote the transition of conventional sectors like steel, cement and chemicals to clean energy.
CATL announced in April 2023 its plan to achieve carbon neutrality in its core operations by 2025 and across the battery value chain by 2035. The company's Zhaoqing plant was the first to be certified as a zero-carbon factory in 2022. It has since achieved this status across a total of four factories. The company's overall carbon emissions fell 34 per cent year on year to 2.1 million tons in 2023, according to its ESG report released in September.
Robin Zeng Yuqun, CATL's founder and chairman, at the company's listing ceremony in Hong Kong on Tuesday. Photo: Sun Yeung
The company, based in Ningde, in east China's Fujian province, has been aggressively diversifying into a wide range of businesses beyond EV battery production.
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