Nissan announces 2030 vehicle carbon intensity reduction targets

Japanese carmaker Nissan has announced a set of 2030 sustainability targets covering vehicle carbon intensity, sustainable materials and diversity and inclusion goals.

The environmental targets include reducing CO2 emissions per vehicle lifecycle by 30% and manufacturing CO2 emissions per vehicle by 52%, from a 2018 baseline. As of 2023, Nissan hadn’t yet disclosed its vehicles’ lifecycle emissions, but manufacturing emissions per vehicle stood at 0.48 tonnes of CO2 – just 0.5% lower than in 2018.

Unsurprisingly, Scope 3 products in use emissions represent the largest portion of the carmaker’s carbon footprint – at nearly 100 million tonnes in 2023. To tackle this, Nissan aims to cut driving emissions for new models in Japan, the US, Europe and China by 50%, and globally by 32.5% before the end of the decade. 

Nissan Chief Sustainability Officer on collaboration towards long-term vision

Nissan’s Chief Sustainability Officer Joji Tagawa explained that meeting the targets would involve procuring recycled parts – the manufacturer also has a target of 40% sustainable materials ratio in its four primary regions – as well as electrifying logistics.

The firm, which decreased production but increased sales in the first half of 2024 compared to last year, is also working to lengthen the life of electric vehicle batteries by allowing them to be used as energy storage for homes and buildings.

“In order to ensure that our progress towards our long-term vision is inclusive of and benefits all of our partners and stakeholders, it is pivotal that we collaborate with them to exchange ideas and opinions and evolve our efforts. Together, we must steadily prepare for the future so we can make the company itself sustainable and, ultimately, contribute to a sustainable society,” added Tagawa, who also chairs the firm’s Global Sustainability Steering Committee.

Nissan to establish new human rights framework

In addition to these environmental targets, Nissan has also laid out a list of social goals for 2030, relating to vehicle safety, diversity and inclusion and employee well-being. As part of these, the company says it will establish a framework to eliminate human rights violations from its supply chain.

The manufacturer scored rather poorly in the World Benchmarking Alliance’s human rights scorecard in 2022, as well as in an assessment of EV makers’ and battery manufacturers’ mineral supply chain policies by NGOs Rainforest Foundation Norway and AidEnvironment, published in May. The report looked at whether carmakers’ responsible sourcing policies trickled down to critical mineral supply chains.

According to the study, Nissan recently updated its mineral policy to expand its scope from conflict minerals to all minerals, including cobalt (the broad majority of which comes from the DRC, causing significant human rights risks).