Cement

Summary of Cement Task Force Action Plan

Cement is an essential material for our infrastructure and has played a vital role in economic development around the world. The production process for cement is energy-intensive and requires a large amount of natural resources for fuel and raw materials. Consequently, the aggregate amount of carbon dioxide (CO₂) emitted from the global cement industry has reached about 2.2 billion tons. Energy makes up about 40% of the cost of cement production. Energy efficiency improvements therefore have great potential to reduce costs, while dramatically reducing the majority of pollutants generated from fuel combustion.

Partner countries account for 62% of global cement production. The Cement Task Force has initially developed six projects and activities to reduce emissions and conserve energy through sharing information on clean energy technologies; cooperate further to diffuse such technologies; and increase private sector investment in the global cement industry.

U.S. Task Force Members 
Cement Task Force Summary of Action Plan and Projects 10/31/06
Cement Task Force on the APP International Website

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Sharing Best Practices

A critical challenge for this sector is the lack of available basic data for each Partner’s cement industry. Once available, this information can serve as the basis for the development of benchmarks, inform decision-making processes, and lead to increases in efficiency among the Partners. Japan’s public and private sector are cooperating to coordinate information-gathering among the Partners. Based on the results of this effort, Partners will work to develop performance indicators and benchmarks for evaluating emissions reduction potentials.

Transforming Markets

Partners have already identified several existing clean-energy technologies and practices that will reduce emissions and/or conserve energy. The United States leads a project that will identify and address legal and regulatory barriers to and incentives for reducing the CO₂ intensity of cement production and deploying cleaner manufacturing technology. This project will also identify legal and regulatory barriers and incentives relating to the use of concrete to mitigate climate-change impacts and energy-efficient structures.

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Summary of U.S. Led Cement Projects

Foster GHG Emission Reduction Technologies in the Indian Cement Industry

Participating Organizations: U.S. Department of State, Confederation of Indian Industry

This project is currently developing a system to establish a road map for future sustainable growth of the Indian cement industry by implementing a detailed analysis of the cement sector focusing on energy efficiency and GHG emission reduction potential. In addition the project has started a GHG emission reduction inventory of 15 cement manufacturing units which will include baselines and voluntary targets. Also this project is currently developing a best practices manual and will provide best practices workshops.