Climate Change and the Environment

Climate Change

Ford is committed to doing our share to prevent or reduce the potential for environmental, economic and social harm due to climate change.

We have a comprehensive, science-based global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our products and processes while working cooperatively with the public and private sectors to advance climate change solutions. We are taking a holistic approach to the issue, recognizing that it affects all parts of our business and is interconnected to other important issues, from water availability and energy security to human rights.

We believe our commitment to addressing the climate change issue in a comprehensive and strategic way is one of the factors that has helped to positively transform our company’s current and future products and prospects.

Our Commitment

Our climate change strategy is based on doing our share to stabilize the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) at 450 parts per million (ppm), the level that many scientists, businesses and governmental agencies believe may avoid the most serious effects of climate change. This commitment includes the following:

For each of our new or significantly refreshed vehicles, we will continue to offer a popular version powertrain with leading fuel economy.
From our global portfolio of products, we will reduce GHG emissions consistent with doing our part for climate stabilization – even taking into account sales growth.
We will reduce our facility CO₂ emissions by 30 percent from 2010 to 2025 on a per-vehicle basis, and average energy consumed per vehicle by 25 percent from 2011 to 2016 globally.

For an in-depth look at the science behind our commitment, please see Ford’s Science-Based CO₂ Targets.

Our technology migration plan for achieving vehicle CO₂ emissions reductions – embodied in our Sustainable Technologies and Alternative Fuels Plan – maps the road we’re taking to achieve our product goals.

Our Progress

We are on track to meet our commitments. We are making progress by adding advanced technologies to all our products and offering high-value, attractive models that are more fuel efficient while still meeting customer expectations for utility and performance. We also continue to invest in energy-efficiency improvements at our facilities worldwide and to assess carbon emissions in our supply chain through multi-stakeholder projects.

Among our recent and upcoming actions, we:

Reduced fleet-average fuel economy from our U.S. car fleet by 2 percent and our U.S. truck fleet by 3 percent in 2012 compared with 2013.¹
Reduced fleet-average CO₂ emissions from our European vehicles by 18 percent from the 2007 to 2013 calendar years.
Reduced CO₂ emissions from our global operations in 2013 by 9 percent per vehicle produced, compared to 2012.
Implemented our sixth engine model with our patented EcoBoost® fuel-saving technology, a 2.7L engine that will debut in the all-new 2015 Ford F-150. We will also debut a new 2.3L EcoBoost engine in our 2015 Lincoln MKC, and later in the 2015 Mustang.
Exceeded our goal of producing 1.5 million EcoBoost engines globally by 2013, instead producing more than 2 million.
Sold nearly 2.5 times as many electrified vehicles in 2013 as in 2012, including our Focus Electric (a battery electric vehicle) and C‑MAX Energi and Fusion Energi (plug-in hybrid electric vehicles), leading the market in plug-in hybrid sales for the fourth quarter of 2013.
Saw Ford electric vehicle customers drive over 114 million all-electric miles as of late April 2014, for a net CO₂ reduction of nearly 8 million kgs compared to gasoline-powered driving.
Continued to offer three hybrid electric vehicle models: the Ford Fusion, Ford C‑MAX and Lincoln MKZ.
In Europe, offered 48 models and variants that achieve a CO₂ emissions level of 130 grams per kilometer (g/km), and 13 that achieve less than 100 g/km.

We discuss our progress on vehicle fuel efficiency and CO₂ emissions in more detail in the Greening Our Products section and our progress in reducing facility-related energy use and CO₂ emissions in the Greening Our Operations section.

Supporting Climate Change Policies

Neither Ford nor the auto industry can achieve climate stabilization alone. Reducing emissions by the amount required calls for an integrated approach – a partnership of all stakeholders, including the automotive industry, the fuel industry, government and consumers. It can only be achieved by significantly and continuously reducing GHG emissions over a period of decades in all sectors of the economy. In the transportation sector, this means improving vehicle fuel economy, developing lower-carbon fuels and working with the government on complementary measures to encourage consumers to purchase these more fuel-efficient vehicles and lower-carbon fuels. We are committed to working with all key stakeholders to create policies that further promote the development of lower-carbon fuels and other complementary measures.

If there is a mismatch between available fuels, vehicles and consumers, climate stabilization goals will not be met. Accordingly, we are committed to advocating for effective and appropriate climate change policy. We are promoting comprehensive market-based policy approaches that will provide a coherent framework for GHG emission reductions, so that companies like ours can move forward in transforming their businesses with a clear understanding of their obligations. For more information on climate change policies globally please see Climate Change Policy and Partnerships.