Philippe Fonta, Managing Director, Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) & Tires Industry Project (TIP), World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)

More than 15 years ago, when the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) was created, under the auspices of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), one of the identified critical sustainability issues was the emissions of CO2 from the cement manufacture and their impact on climate change. Under the leadership of some cement companies, having operations in more than 100 countries today, the CSI developed a common Energy and CO2 reporting protocol, based on the reference GHG protocol created by the WBBCSD and the World Resource Institute (WRI) to guarantee that all emissions reported by the CSI companies are reported according to the same methodology and can be aggregated to make a sectoral indicator out of it. On that basis, a common, independently-managed database of CO2 emissions (well known as the “Getting the Numbers Right” (GNR) database) was developed and his now covering more than 940 plants all over the world, after the reporting for the 8^th consecutive year. Using the GNR data as a baseline, a technology roadmap was developed in 2009 in partnership with the International Energy Agency (IEA), identifying the technology solutions, as well as the barriers to implement them and the stakeholders to involve in order to overcome these barriers.

In the run-up of the future COP21 to happen in Paris in December 2015, the WBCSD wants to scale up all the initiatives that exist through the different projects operated under its auspices, and created the concept of the Low carbon technology Partnership Initiative (LCTPi). This initiative follows the same process as the one CSI undertook more than a decade ago, identifying the technological solutions, the barriers for implementation and the stakeholders that can be helpful to overcome these barriers. The difference is in the scale. As a consequence, my presentation will illustrate how the leading companies of CSI intend to reach to external stakeholders (other CSI companies and non-member companies, policy-makers, financial institutions…) to propose a statement of ambition that would be necessary to achieve the objective of maintaining the temperature increase below the 2°C scenario.

Kenji Ogawa, Director, Senior Executive Officer, Taiheiyo Cement Corporation

We, JCA, think that the cement industry should consider appropriate measures to address climate actions by taking into consideration of establishment of a sustainable society. My presentation slide indicates that the industry should make a well-balanced contribution to social infrastructures toward the sustainable society consisting of a low-carbon society, a recycling-based society and a society harmonized with nature. However, since this approach may sometimes lead to issues such as political barriers and inefficient energy performance, we should enhance to remove them together with government as a public private partnership (PPP).

Diane Thomas, Professor, Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Department, Faculty of Engineering, University of Mons

S.K. Handoo, Advisor (Technical), Cement Manufacturers' Association (CMA)

Carbon, the basic component of life, is still holding its place high in controlling the speed of development wheels for Global economy. Every process or activity, directly or indirectly leaves carbon footprint, which needs to be estimated and reduced in order to achieve sustainable development. Being a developing economy and 2^nd largest cement producer in the world, Indian cement industry has got International benchmark to be the best in gaining energy efficiency and controlling CO₂ emissions by adopting Best Available Technologies. Other Key levers like reduction in clinker to cement ratio, increased use of Alternative Fuel, Waste Heat Recovery (WHR), supportive policies and investment strategies are required to be explored and implemented. After successful completion of Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT)-CYCLE-I this year March, 2015, India is looking forward to next cycle would cover more Designated Consumers (DC), and achieving stringent energy targets.

Following all the above key levers, the CSI Roadmap for Indian cement industry has projected a significant reduction in emissions from 0.63 tCO₂/t cement in 2010 to 0.35 TCO₂/t cement in 2050. Cement consumption is expected to rise between 460-800 kg/capita by 2050, which will further increase pressure for finding alternatives with low carbon emissions. Use of technologies like WHR, Alternate fuel usage with co-processing (Biomass/ Tyre chips/MSW/ Hazardous waste) has already picked up pace in Indian cement industry.

Supporting the target of the New Government i.e. 175 GW Renewable Energy Capacity by 2022, Country’s Cement players have already initiated drawing blueprint to harness solar and wind energy. Further approaches to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) need to be explored to bring out best of lowest carbon emitting industry in India. Our cement industry holds promise of innovation for a better tomorrow, and we are determined to give a realistic shape to it in the coming years.