The Volkswagen Group wants to become a net-carbon-neutral company
The Volkswagen Group stands firmly committed to the principles outlined in the Paris Climate Agreement and aligns its own activities with the 1.5-degree target. Our ultimate goal is to achieve net carbon neutrality by 2050. As part of this commitment, we have set an interim target: a 30 percent reduction in the carbon footprint during the use phase of our passenger cars and light commercial vehicles by 2030, compared with 2018, per kilometer driven.
The Volkswagen Group is accelerating its efforts to achieve net carbon neutrality at all production sites worldwide by 2040, 10 years earlier than originally planned. Among other things, greenhouse gas emissions are to be reduced by 90% by 2040 compared to 2018. The Volkswagen Group aims to achieve this, for example, by converting its energy supply and increasing energy efficiency. By 2030, 100 percent of the external electricity purchased by all sites is to come from CO2-neutral sources. Currently, 100 percent of the external electricity supplied to the European plants already comes from renewable energies.
Our goal is to achieve zero-impact status for all of our manufacturing plants for passenger cars and light commercial vehicles by 2050. Compared with 2010, in the five-year span to 2023 we've reduced water use by 24 percent, waste by 75 percent, and VOC emissions by 68 percent per vehicle. The goals are to reduce total environmental impact of our production sites for passenger cars by 37.5 percent by 2030, 69 percent by 2040 and 100 percent by 2050 (compared to 2018).