India’s fast-growing cement industry can reduce its carbon emissions by nearly half by the middle of the century, according to a technology roadmap issued today by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).
The roadmap development was spear-headed by the three co-chair companies, ACC, Shree Cement and UltraTech, who committed extensive resources and expertise from across their companies to lead the project. They were supported by the wider working group from the other CSI companies in India.The initiative, supported by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), was developed in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB).
Faced with massive infrastructure and housing requirements, India is the world’s fastest growing cement market – and will likely remain in that position for the foreseeable future. The new report, Technology Roadmap: Low-Carbon Technology for the Indian Cement Industry, outlines a way for the Indian cement industry to reduce its CO2 emissions in 2050 by at least 210 MtCO2 compared to a business-as-usual scenario. The savings roughly equal the total CO2 emissions of Thailand in 2009. This transition will also have energy benefits, reducing energy consumption by at least 275 petajoules – which is as much as the current industry energy consumption of Singapore (or Norway or Philippines).
The Indian cement industry is one of the most efficient in the world and has made strong efforts to reduce its carbon footprint. Yet, opportunities for improvements still exist. The milestones set out in this roadmap would enhance the country’s energy security by limiting the growth in energy consumption, and would further reduce the direct CO2 emissions intensity by about 45% from current levels by 2050.
The vision laid out in the roadmap is achievable; however the targeted reductions are ambitious. Decisive action by all stakeholders is critical to realize the vision laid out in this roadmap: to achieve the proposed levels of efficiency improvements and emissions reduction, government and industry must join hands to take collaborative actions in creating an investment climate that will stimulate the scale-up of financing required.
This is the first time that a technology roadmap will be followed by a ‘Phase II’, in which Indian CSI member companies will carry out a detailed feasibility study of low-carbon technology implementation at one specific plant per company. IFC will provide financial support for Phase II, and lessons learned will be shared with the wider cement industry in India and abroad through the CSI network.
This roadmap was developed building on the success of the global roadmap published in 2009, which was the first report of its kind to provide an ambitious vision for carbon emissions reduction for one industry sector as a whole, up to 2050.
T Kumar, Joint Secretary, Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, Ministry of Commerce and Industry indicated at the launch event on 25 Feb: "It is heartening to note that considerable efforts have been made by CSI towards the development of the low carbon technology roadmap for the cement industry in India. I welcome the analysis and urge the industry to come up with innovative solutions. I am happy to note that industry has already achieved 36 percent reduction in CO2 emissions. With depleting limestone reserves, newer materials and newer technologies are needed for India's infrastructure development. The government has plans to spend US$ 1 trillion on infrastructure development in the next five years."
Philippe Fonta, WBCSD CSI Managing Director said: “CSI member companies in India are able, thanks to IFC support, to scale up the implementation of low-carbon solutions in their own plants and across the cement industry more broadly. This will help ensure that leading companies in the CSI can continue to provide the growing volumes of cement required from the Indian market, and do this in a low-carbon and energy efficient manner.”
Maria van der Hoeven, IEA Executive Director said: “The IEA is pleased to have partnered again with WBCSD to develop this national roadmap for the cement industry in India, the world’s fastest-growing cement market. We applaud the Indian cement industry and the IFC for their initiative to undertake a second phase focusing on roadmap implementation and for their efforts to transition the Indian cement industry to a low-carbon pathway.”
Thomas Davenport, IFC’s Director for South Asia said, “The private sector can play a leading role in providing innovative business solutions to address climate change, which is also an important regional priority for IFC. This technology roadmap is a unique example of one industry collectively supporting India’s low-carbon development goals. We applaud the leadership shown by CSI member companies in India to voluntarily come forward to support long-term climate change mitigation.”
The India roadmap has been developed collaboratively by the WBCSD’s CSI and the IEA. It has been led by CSI member companies in India which represent around 60% of the country’s cement production.They are: ACC Ltd, Ambuja Cements, HeidelbergCement India Ltd, Lafarge India Private Ltd, My Home Industries Ltd / CRH, Shree Cement, Shree Digvijay Cement Co Ltd – Cimpor Group, UltraTech Cement and Zuari Cement. Since the start of the project, Dalmia Bharat Cement Ltd and Jaypee Cement have joined the CSI. The IEA has brought expertise in data analysis and modeling, and roadmap development. Technical consultancy was provided by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and National Council for Cement and Building Materials (NCB).
IFC supported the development of technical papers on reduction of greenhouse gas emission. These are customized to the Indian cement industry. Going forward, IFC will also enable CSI member companies to undertake a resource efficiency assessment at their manufacturing facility to examine the feasibility of implementation of these technologies. The assessment will identify specific areas where investments in energy efficiency, technology up-gradation and material conservation can lead to reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.