LONDON: Sweden’s Boliden said it has launched two “green” copper products this week, the first of its kind, hoping to appeal to consumers aiming to cut their carbon footprint.

The two copper cathode products - one sourced from recycled electronic scrap, the other from reduced-emissions mining - will have less than half the average carbon dioxide emissions of traditionally mined copper, Martin Eriksson, copper sales manager, said on Friday.

The main spotlight on cutting emissions from industrial metals so far has been aluminium due to its very energy-intensive production, but copper’s wide use makes it important as well, he added.

Copper, the third most consumed industrial metal after iron and aluminium, is used in electric cabling, construction and increasingly in electric vehicles and wind turbines.

“The mining part of copper is the big polluter when it comes to CO2, but in our mines, the main source of energy is hydro electricity,” Eriksson told Reuters in an interview.