Sasol Limited Climate Change Report 2021 - Book - Page 6
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INTRODUCTION
Deep dive into our 2021 GHG performance
Explaining our performance
• Emissions in 2020, excluding COVID-19 and two shutdowns, would have been ~62.5 MtCO2e as opposed to ~61.9 MtCO2e;
• Emissions in 2021, including a shutdown, would have been approximately ~62.6 MtCO2e as opposed to ~63.2 MtCO2e; and
• Reductions against our target in 2021 would have been ~2% instead of 1% if we had a shutdown.
This allowed us to conclude that in 2020, we would not have seen as high a reduction in GHG emissions as we did if we had only one shutdown instead of two. Overall the impact of the
shutdowns played a key role in our emissions profile in 2020 and 2021.
In 2020 two shutdowns were undertaken, taking
advantage of depressed production during COVID-19,
which allowed for additional maintenance. As a result,
a maintenance shutdown was not required in 2021.
Lower production,
shutdowns and mitigation
Nonetheless steady gains in efficiencies were achieved
in 2021 as we recovered from losses experienced in 2020.
This is evidenced by our improved energy efficiency data
and less coal and gas usage, while maintaining a higher
production output.
• Heat integration utilising waste heat from the gas engines
(82 kt CO2e reduction from 2016); and
• Energy efficiency improvements (362 kt CO2e reduction
from 2017).
Our Sasolburg Operations achieved further reductions
compared to 2020. These reductions were however somewhat
overshadowed by the higher emissions at our Secunda facility.
Future re-baselining of our 2017 emissions
Sasol's 2017 baseline, due to the sale of the Air Separation
Units (ASUs) in Secunda, requires a re-baselining in terms
of the GHG Protocol. The ASUs sale was finalised in June
2021 and therefore re-baselining was not able to be
actioned this year. In 2022, the ASU emissions (~1,8 Mt
scope 2 emissions) will be excluded from our baseline and
re-allocated to Air Liquide. Importantly, this action is not a
GHG reduction activity and does not count towards meeting
our target.
60 000
-0.1%
0.7%
1.3%
-1.2%
58 000
56 000
2021
Offsets
58 933
62 000
-6.8%
• Occasional partial shutdown of power stations 1 and 2
(183 kt CO2e reduction from 2020);
64 000
63 234
• Compressor efficiency optimisation (6 kt CO2e reduction
from 2018);
66 000
61 926
• Steam recovery from internal plants (26 kt CO2e reduction
from 2017);
Detailed breakdown
of our performance
since 2017
-1.3%
Since 2017, we have implemented various mitigation projects
which continued delivering results in 2021. We also submitted
details of these projects to the Department of Forestry,
Fisheries and the Environment (DFFE) as part of our mandatory
Pollution Prevention Plan for the period 2016 to 2020.
They include:
Process efficiency
Higher electricity
use
Lower production
and energy efficiency
GHG emissions (kt/a)
Mitigation actions to date
More operating days and no
shutdown
Energy efficiency
-0.6%
The increase was largely as a result of no shutdowns
at our Secunda Operations in 2021. Normal operations
involve an annual shutdown of large parts of the plant
for maintenance every September.
Details of the increases and decreases of GHG emissions at Secunda and Sasolburg since 2017, are logged below. We also normalised the data to assess if reductions would still be
evident and sustained during a year with normal operations. This yielded the following insights:
63 925
Sasol's GHG emissions increased in 2021, eroding progress
made against our target since 2017. At the end of the
financial year 2021, our progress stands at 1% from 2017.
This is compared to our performance in 2020, when we
had achieved a 3% reduction from 2017.
54 000
52 000
50 000
2017
Secunda
(scope 1)
Secunda
(scope 2)
Sasolburg
(scope 1
and 2)
2020
Secunda
(scope 1)
Secunda
(scope 2)
Sasolburg
(scope 1
and 2)
Net
emissions
1. Publicly available GHG information for 2020 differs from figures reflected in the graph above due to restatements undertaken this year, refer to page 45 for further information.
Clawing back loss of progress
In accordance with our risk management and business processes, we are rolling out corrective measures to recover from the progress lost. We are also implementing preventative measures
to ensure preparedness should future events, such as COVID-19, compromise our ability to meet the targets.
We have prioritised projects that deliver higher emission reductions to restore our downward emissions trajectory. Our aim is to achieve a 5% reduction sooner, but no later than 2026. In
addition, we are targeting the accelerated deployment of renewable energy, as well as the reinstatement of our nitrous oxide (N2O) abatement catalyst at Secunda.
Our GHG performance is tracked across all levels of the company and reported to the Group Executive Committee (GEC) and the Sasol Board of Directors (Board). Quarter-on-quarter and
month-on-month data analysis will help us flag these issues as they occur. We are also managing, on a more frequent basis, our performance by tracking live dashboards at relevant GEC
and other governance meetings.
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Sasol Climate Change Report 2021