Low-Carbon Growth in Indian Cement Sector

Member companies of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (WBCSD) Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), ACC Limited, Shree Cement Ltd, and Ultratech Cement Ltd, and the International Finance Corp. (IFC) announced signing of cooperation agreements to support low carbon investment in the Indian cement sector.

The cooperation agreements are part of a project the industry is co-leading, to develop the Low Carbon Technology Roadmap for the Indian Cement Industry. The Indian roadmap, to be launched in late 2012, will be the first roadmap to focus on one specific industrial sector in a single country. WBCSD’s CSI and the International Energy Agency (IEA) 2009 Global Cement Technology roadmap was the first report of its kind to provide an ambitious vision for carbon emissions reductions for one industry sector as a whole, up to 2050. The roadmap outlines a possible transition path for the industry to make continued contributions towards a halving of global CO??? emissions by 2050. As part of this contribution, this roadmap estimates that the cement industry could reduce its direct emissions 18 percent from 2005 levels by 2050.

Involvement from the IFC has enabled the WBCSD to widen the project’s coverage and scope. As part of the roadmap project, a set of technical papers on greenhouse gas emission reductions relevant to the Indian cement industry has been developed. IFC support will enable CSI member companies in India to undertake a resource efficiency assessment looking into feasibility of implementation of these technologies at selected manufacturing locations. The assessment will identify specific areas where investments related to energy efficiency, technology up-gradation, material conservation etc can lead to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reductions.