Cement, Energy and Environment

meet its environmental goals, with economic growth long at the top of its political agenda, but it has now vowed to impose its will on local governments and make cleaning up the environment its number one priority. Hebei province consumed about 280 million tonnes of coal last year and is under pressure to cut 40 mil lion tonnes by 2017. The capital Beijing aims to slash consumption by 13 million tonnes to just 10 million tonnes over the same period. Tianjin used 47 million tonnes last year, and aims to cut 10 million tonnes by 2017. While Beijing has already shut and relocated its steel mills, Hebei and Tianjin together produced more than 200 million tonnes of crude steel in 2013. They are under orders to close at least 60 million tonnes of low-quality plants by 2017, and Hebei's leaders have already threatened to fire officials who allow even a tonne of additional capacity on their patch. However, with idle capacity in the region approaching 100 million tonnes and with many plants already on the brink of bankruptcy, the GREEN BUILDINGS REGISTERED BASE CROSSES 2 BILLION SQ FT MARK The green building movement in India has gathered pace and has achieved a major landmark of crossing two billion sq ft of registered buildings spanning over 2,400 projects. India is next only to the US. This is a significant development for the green building movement in the country and has caught the imagination of commercial buildings, private and public institutions, Government offices, heritage buildings and homes as the cost to go green has come down over the years, S Raghu– pathy, Executive Director of (CII-Godrej Green Business Council, said. The cost of setting up a green building varies depending upon its utility - whether it is a commercial office, a housing township or an indi– vidual house. What used to be about 10-15 per cent higher for commercial buildings about 10 years ago, with the payback period being 8-10 years, has now come down to barely 3-5 per cent higher with payback in less than three years, he explained. closure targets might not have as much of an impact on emissions as policymakers hope. China has promised in a number of policy documents over the past two years that it would block the construction of new industrial plants like steel smelters, cement factories or oil refineries in three major "low-emission" regions, includ ing Beij ing-Hebei-Tianjin, the Yangtze river delta region centring on Shanghai and the Pearl river delta region in southern Guangdong province. China's environment ministry has said the regions are responsible for 55 percent of national steel production, 40 percent of total cement output and 52 percent of gasoline and diesel, despite covering just 8 percent of the country's total area. A former health minister said last year pollution related to coal-fired power causes up to 500,000 premature deaths annually. Courtesy: Reuters, London- 16.04.2014 Pg. No.14-15 Heritage buildings Old and heritage buildings too have begun to attract people to opt for the rating system. In one such innovative approach, the Tata Group head– quarters Bombay House, which is a heritage building, has become the first to be certified with the Green Existing Building Rating under the In– dian Green Building Council. This shows that there are corporate entities and people, who are committed to achieving this and lead by example, he explained. He said that it took nearly nine years for the country to have a registered base of one billion sq ft of green buildings after the first green building was constructed around 2003-04. And in two years, this number has doubled, showing growing interest to take the movement forward across various segments. All these registered buildings are expected to be completed within next two years, he told . Courtesy: The Hindu Business Line, Hyderabad, 04.04.2014 Pg. No. 9-10 54