Displaying items by tag: CO2

US: The California Senate has voted in favour of a proposed bill which will require the State Air Resources Board to develop a plan for the state’s cement producers to achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the end of 2045. A 40% reduction compared to 2019 levels would also be mandated by the end of 2035. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC), an environmental advocacy group that is sponsoring the bill, has called for measures such as requiring public construction projects to use reduced-CO₂ cement and establishing purely performance-based specifications for legally defining cement to be adopted by the eventual strategy if the bill passes into state law. The proposed bill will next move to the California State Assembly as part of the local legislative process.

Germany: Data from HeidelbergCement’s Sustainability Report 2020 reveals that it reduced its specific net CO₂ emissions by 2% year-on-year to 576kg/t of cementious material in 2020 from 589 kg/t in 2019. This represents a 23% reduction since 1990. The company has a target of 30% by 2025. It has a number of carbon capture and utilisation/storage (CCU/S) projects in various stages of development to meet its goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050. Other data shows that its alternative fuels substitution rate rose to 25.7% from 24% and its clinker ratio fell slightly to 74.3%.

During the reporting year, the group joined the climate lobbying group Foundation 2° and achieving a CDP climate protection rating of A. For water security it secured the second-highest rating of A-. The group’s specific water consumption for cement rose by 5% in 2020 to 271.9l/t of cement from 260l/t in 2019. However the company says it is continuing to improve water consumption reporting at its sites until 2025.

Little trickles of detail about the European Union’s (EU) proposed carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) started to emerge last week. The key bit of information that Bloomberg managed to squeeze out of their source was that a transition period with a simplified system is being considered from 2023 and then a full version could turn up in 2026. Cement importers, and those in selected other heavy industries, would be required to buy electronic emission certificates at prices corresponding to those in the EU emissions trading scheme (ETS). Other titbits include: that the prices will be set on a weekly basis based on the average carbon permit price within the EU that week; a default value will be devised for importers who can’t back up their emissions data; and imports from a country with its own carbon pricing scheme will be entitled to a discount. The plans are due to be made public in mid-July 2021. Debate is then expected to follow before approval will be required from the European Parliament and member states.

The detail isn’t out there yet but the CBAM is set to collide with trade agreement territory. For example, how the draft agreement tackles issues such as exports from Europe and whether importers should be compensated for not receiving a free allocation of carbon credits could be seen to offer competitive advantage to one party or another. Climate policy will clash with trade policy once or if the CBAM makes in into law. At this point countries that import cement into the EU may start trying to negotiate or complaining to the World Trade Organisation. One previous example of climate policy bashing into trade agreements is when the EU tried and failed to apply the ETS to aviation in the early 2010s. The experience from this incident is expected to inform the European Commission’s approach on the CBAM.

Outside the EU, new carbon pricing schemes have been popping up all over the place and various cement associations are creating or refining their own carbon neutral plans. Last week in North America, for example, the Cement Association of Canada said it was working with the government on launching a roadmap by the end of 2021. In the US, the Portland Cement Association (PCA) has also been hard at work to publish its own roadmap by the end of 2021. Meanwhile, over in the oil sector there were a couple of victories for activist shareholders in May 2021 with Shell, Exxon Mobil and Chevron all being forced to make changes to their climate change polices by courts and activist investors. This makes one wonder how long it will be before the same thing happens to cement companies.

All this increases the pressure between trading agreements and climate legislation. One of the questions that has popped up at Global Cement’s webinar series has been whether attendees thought that a global carbon pricing and/or trading scheme might be a realistic position or not (the majority said ‘yes’ within 20 years). Yet the EU CBAM, all these sustainability plans and continued pressure by investor activist don’t happen in isolation. They occur in an interconnected world.

So it was both non-surprising and eye-popping to discover recently that a private carbon exchange is being prepared in Singapore for a launch by the end of 2021. Climate Impact X (CIX) is being backed by DBS Bank, Singapore Exchange, Standard Chartered and the Singapore-government owned investment company Temasek. As for which companies would actually voluntarily enter into a scheme that would actively reduce profits, the answer lies above. Any organisation looking to trade between carbon pricing jurisdictions might well have an economic incentive to find a truly international scheme that was reputable. Or, perhaps, a publicly owned company dealing in carbon-intensive products might be bullied into one by its activist investors. The focus on such an exchange being reputable is essential here, given the potentially large amounts of money that could be involved and the mixed views on existing carbon offsetting schemes. CIX says it will use satellite monitoring, machine learning and blockchain technology to ensure the integrity of its carbon credits and this is certainly thinking in the right direction. Until it arrives though, we wait to see the detail on the EU CBAM.

Czech Republic: Mexico-based Cemex plans to install a 2MW waste heat recovery (WHR) plant using supercritical CO₂ (sCO₂) at its Prachovice cement plant. The unit is intended to provide up to 8% of the plant’s electricity requirements.

The producer is part of a consortium studying new sCO₂ WHR systems. The EU Horizon 2020 Industrial Heat to Power fund awarded Euro14m in financial backing to the consortium. The project is intended to demonstrate a cheaper and more flexible method of waste heat valorisation compared to the steam or organic rankine cycle approaches conventionally used in WHR.

Plant director Karol Czubara said, “The new sCO₂ technology has a smaller footprint and higher operational flexibility than conventional power plant cycles, which produce power from turbines using water or steam.”

Spain: The total CO₂ emissions of cement and clinker production in Spain fell by 14% year-on-year in 2020. The El Economista newspaper has reported that a report by the Sustainability Observatory recorded that 10 Spanish companies were responsible for emitting 51Mt of CO₂ in 2020 or 56% of the national total.

Sweden: Germany-based HeidelbergCement subsidiary Cementa plans to upgrade its Slite unit in Gotland to become the world’s first carbon-neutral cement plant. This will be achieved through modification of the plant’s fuel system to ‘significantly raise’ biobased fuel substitution, as well as 100% carbon capture and storage (CCS) via a 1.8Mt/yr CCS installation. Full-scale capturing of the plant’s CO₂ emissions is scheduled by 2030.

Chair Dominik von Achten said, “HeidelbergCement will be the leader in the global cement industry on its transformation path towards climate neutrality. The key for decarbonising our industry is to find, apply and scale technical solutions for carbon capture and utilisation or storage (CCU/S). After having gained valuable experience with CCU/S technologies in Norway and other countries, we are now excited to make the next step with a completely carbon-neutral cement plant in Sweden.”

Canada: The Cement Association of Canada (CAC) and the government have published a joint statement detailing their plant to develop a roadmap to net-zero carbon concrete. When launched in December 2021, the roadmap will provide Canadian cement producers with the policies, tools and technologies to contribute to the achievement of net-zero concrete by 2050. The plans will cover areas including: supporting the low-emissions building materials supply chain, building an innovative opportunities framework and engaging stakeholders. According to the statement, the roadmap will offer total potential CO₂ reduction of 15Mt by 2030, and 4.0Mt/yr thereafter.

The partnership will establish a CAC-led Industry-Government Working Group in collaboration with the National Research Council the Standards Council of Canada and Innovation, Science and Economic Development. Among its tasks will be the publication of updated environmental product declarations.

UK: Hanson, part of Germany-based HeidelbergCement, has supplied basalt from its Builth Wells, Powys quarry to the world’s first CO₂ sequestration field trial in the Brecon Beacons. The trial uses local live soil enriched with basalt for enhanced CO₂ sequestration in a reforested 11ha woodland. Enhanced rock weathering takes crushed basalt, a by-product of quarrying, and applies it to the soil to capture CO₂ and provide essential nutrients to fertilise trees and the fungi in the soil that support tree growth. The building materials producer says it is a method that has been proven to be successful in sugar beet and pea crops.

Sustainability director Marian Garfield said, “Hanson is focussed on climate protection and carbon reduction, and enhancing biodiversity net gain are two of our key 2030 commitments.” She added, “We are excited to be involved with this project, which aims to determine whether basalt can accelerate the removal of CO₂ from the atmosphere in the creation of new woodland and could therefore potentially play a vital role in helping tackle the climate crisis.”

Mexico: Cemex says that it has supplied its low-CO₂ Vertua concrete to 786 construction works in Mexico. The El Sol de San Luis newspaper has reported that the volume so far delivered totals 33,000m³. In late May 2021, 398 further projects have placed orders for future deliveries.

Poland: The Polish Cement Association (SPC) has forecast a 2% year-on-year drop in cement sales to 18.5Mt in 2021. President Krzysztof Kieres attributed the fall to growing imports and reduced construction due to a cold start to the year. He predicts that sales will rise again, by 4% to 19.3Mt, in 2022.

The SPC has warned that the industry faces large costs in meeting the European Green Deal’s required 40% CO₂ emissions reduction by 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In particular, the local industry noted that the rising European Union (EU) CO₂ price has caused a direct increase in electricity prices. It has called on the government and the EU to compensate it for this rise.

Imports of cement also present a key challenge. In 2020, imports of Belarusian cement increased by 80% to 440,000t and imports of Ukrainian cement increased by 50% to 32,000t. The association expressed strong support for the European Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) as a means of protecting the industry against imports both from neighbouring countries outside the EU and via polluting shipping from cement exporters further afield such as Turkey.