Energy is one of the chemical industry’s biggest costs and we account for almost a fifth of energy consumed by UK manufacturing, even though since 1990 we have cut per-unit energy consumption by a third. As the UK’s largest manufacturing export sector, with an annual surplus of £5bn, we play a leading part in the energy and climate change debate.
I am not claiming every chemical company has a green-tinted outlook, but I do know high energy prices make efficiency a commercial imperative. However, our well-established efficiency performance does mean that further significant improvements are much more challenging – forcing raw materials to change into useful chemicals will always be energy-intensive.
