China News Service, September 20 (Zhongxin Finance and Economics Gong Hongyu) "The 'carbon reduction' goal of the rubber industry is not only to reduce carbon emissions and ultimately achieve carbon neutrality, but to achieve green innovation and green transformation. More upstream and downstream enterprises, industries and society can develop sustainably to create a broader sustainable ecosystem." said Ye Fei, President and CEO of Michelin China.

  Recently, the "Haichuang Forum 2022", co-sponsored by the Central Committee of the Zhi Gong Party and the Beijing Political Consultative Conference and undertaken by China News Network, was held in Beijing.

After the meeting, Ye Fei accepted an exclusive interview with China News Network.

Ye Fei, President and CEO of Michelin China.

Photo courtesy of the interviewee

  At present, with the advancement of the "dual carbon" goal, enterprises in various fields are also accelerating their green transformation.

As a tire manufacturer, Michelin Group proposes that by 2050, it will fully achieve carbon neutrality in the fields of production, energy and transportation, and the sustainable raw materials of tires will reach 100%.

  "In response to this goal, Michelin's technical route mainly has two aspects: reducing carbon emission coefficient; improving energy efficiency." Ye Fei said that in terms of production, Michelin began to reduce emissions from factories more than ten years ago.

Starting this year, the Minhang plant in Shanghai, the Baoshan plant and the Shenyang plant in Liaoning have achieved 100% "green power".

  Ye Fei also mentioned that more than 80% of the carbon emissions in the whole life cycle of tires are related to the use link.

Michelin continues to improve tire design and materials to make tires lighter in weight and lower rolling resistance, thereby reducing the impact of tires on fuel consumption, while ensuring long-lasting tire performance.

  Focusing on the entire rubber industry, Ye Fei believes that four aspects are needed to realize the sustainability of the whole life cycle of tires.

  One is the energy transition.

The tire industry should deploy all possible technological solutions to improve the energy efficiency of tire production, develop a wide range of renewable energy sources, and encourage the widespread use of various types of green energy.

  The second is standard improvement.

Establish an open, transparent, scientific and international accounting system to revise relevant standards, and help the entire industry to establish a clearer carbon footprint roadmap from the full life cycle of tires.

We should speed up the formulation of carbon emission standards for waste tire recycling, give full play to the supporting role of renewable resources in achieving the dual carbon goal, and promote the green and healthy development of the waste tire recycling industry.

  The third is to strengthen tracking.

Promote new tires equipped with RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and other technologies, and explore the extended responsibility system for tire product producers to better track the full life cycle of tires and improve the comprehensive utilization efficiency of waste tires.

  The fourth is sustainable materials.

Promote the use of sustainable materials for large-scale deployment and industrial production.

  In addition to the opportunities and challenges brought by the "dual carbon" goal, the development of new energy vehicles has also put forward new requirements for parts companies.

Ye Fei also pointed out that new energy vehicles have brought some new changes to China's auto industry. New energy vehicle tires wear faster than traditional vehicles, and the impact of tire rolling resistance and air resistance on vehicle energy consumption and cruising range is becoming more and more important. .

  Ye Fei said that for heavier electric vehicles, Michelin has developed tires with larger diameters, or the same size but with higher bearing capacity; for electric vehicles, which have high requirements for tires to reduce noise, Michelin has developed Acoustic mute technology.

In the past 20 years, the energy efficiency of Michelin passenger car tires has increased by more than 20%.

  "Since entering the Chinese market for more than 30 years, Michelin has experienced very high-speed development. In the future, we must turn to higher-quality development with innovation, sharing and transformation as the key words. We emphasize 'all actions consider the environmental impact', and the Michelin Group includes Chinese factories are continuing to transform into green 'intelligent' manufacturing," said Ye Fei.

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