12.26.2006 - 03:58pm ET

(CSRwire) Singen, Germany — Alcan is providing innovative solar cookers and pans to 1,000 rural Indonesian families in the country’s Banda Aceh region as part of a €450,000 contribution with Klimaschutz e.V. to a "Clean Development Mechanism" (CDM) project aimed at preserving the environment. The parabolic solar cooker harnesses renewable solar energy, to boil water, killing bacteria and cooking food. It is intended to reduce developing regions’ dependence on traditional sources of energy, such as firewood and fossil fuels.

"As part of Alcan’s commitment to sustainability, the Company is proud to participate in a project that will preserve the environment for future generations, through an innovative product like the solar cooker," said Peter Hutsch, Managing Director, Alcan Singen GmbH, location of the rolling mill at which Alcan manufactures the solar cooker’s critical reflector component. "By substituting traditional sources of energy like firewood and fossil fuels with the solar cooker, we estimate that this project will annually save 3,500 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. Alcan benefits from the CDM project in the form of CO2 credits, so-called Certified Emission Reductions, within the emission trading system", he added.

Klimaschutz e.V. is serving as a partner for the local co-ordination of the so-called "Solar Cooker Project Aceh 1, Indonesia" project, in addition to constructing the solar cookers in Aceh and monitoring their use over the next seven years. The project is the first German CDM-project registered by the United Nations climate office. The CDM project is defined in Article 12 of the Kyoto Protocol, which serves to protect the global climate in a sustainable manner and to promote the transfer of climate-saving techniques from industrial nations to developing countries.

"This project once again demonstrates how Alcan’s innovative aluminum solutions are well positioned to tackle both environmental and economic challenges," said Christophe Villemin, President, Alcan Specialty Sheet. "The solar cooker’s reflector is constructed from Alcan’s high-gloss rolled aluminium specialty sheet, Solar SurfaceTM 992, and has a transparent ceramic coating that protects against the weather, corrosion and mechanical damage."

Currently, approximately 20,000 cookers are in use around the world and have been used effectively to provide clean water to victims of the 2005 tsunami that devastated Southeast Asia. It is estimated that up to 220 million solar cookers are needed to critically reduce developing regions’ dependence on traditional sources of fuel. This number of solar cookers could also save approximately 700 – 800 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions.

Alcan Inc. (NYSE, TSX: AL) is a leading global materials company, delivering high quality products and services worldwide. With world-class technology and operations in bauxite mining, alumina processing, primary metal smelting, power generation, aluminum fabrication, engineered solutions as well as flexible and specialty packaging, today’s Alcan is well positioned to meet and exceed its customers’ needs. Alcan is represented by 65,000 employees in 61 countries and regions, and posted revenues of US$20.3 billion in 2005. The Company has featured on the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index consecutively since 2003. For more information, please visit: www.alcan.com.

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