- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I’m writing this at a height of 8km, flying somewhere over the beautiful north of Italy, on my way back from Thessaloniki in Greece, where I attended the EuroSlag Conference. Two startling ideas came out of the meeting; the possibility that CO2 might come to be treated on the same basis as waste in the waste hierarchy (avoidance being preferred to disposal/sequestration, for example); and the possibility of a net-zero CO2 iron and steel industry by 2050. It was a useful trip, with good food and a little bit of running and bird-watching as well (each to their own), but I can’t help but feel a little bit guilty.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
As my wife shopped in a branch of Hobby Lobby, a giant American craft shop, I picked up a copy of the founder’s autobiography which was languishing near the tills. David Green’s book, ‘Giving It All Away... and Getting It All Back Again: The Way of Living Generously,’ recounts how he started his company by making picture frames in his garage in 1970. His firm now has over 700 stores and he is worth around US$7.9Bn. He seems to be a humble man, despite his vast wealth, and is seeking to give away much of his money – and not necessarily to the people who might expect to receive it. He says that it is never too early to consider what your legacy may be. He considers that one of his own legacies (apart from a precedent-setting US Supreme Court case), are the values that he has instilled in his own family.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
There were interesting discussions at two of the cement industry conferences that I’ve recently attended, the Global FutureCem Conference on CO2 reduction strategies for the cement and concrete industries, and the Intercem event in Istanbul, its 100th edition. Industry experts were asked at both events if there was any prospect of there being a global emissions trading scheme (a ‘GETS’). One expert said “It’s a fairy tale - it will never happen.” Another said, “Yes, it’s inevitable. It will happen within five years.” The likely outcome probably lies somewhere between the two. But why might it come into being and what would such a scheme look like?
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
I’ve just returned from taking part in the 2nd Irish Sailing and Mountaineering Adventure Challenge (ISAMAC), a sailing race from Kinsale to Dingle which also includes scaling three mighty mountains.
- Written by Robert McCaffrey Editorial Director, Global Cement Magazine
At the recent IEEE-IAS/PCA Cement Conference in St Louis I gave a presentation on my best guess for what the cement industry will look like in 2050 (see also www.Cement2050.com). In the presentation, I quoted Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England and Francois Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Banque de France, who in mid-April 2019 jointly said the following: “A massive reallocation of capital is necessary to prevent global warming above the 2°C maximum target… If some companies and industries fail to adjust to this new world, they will fail to exist.” When they said that, I felt that they could have been speaking directly to the global cement industry.
