Cement, Energy and Environment

By D.Sivagurunathan The India Cements Ltd., Chennai Cement is the most widely used substance on the planet after water. Unfortunately it is also one of the most polluting substances in the manufacturing arena. Cement Manufacturing involves a burning process, which is normally fuelled by coal, resulting in chemical reaction that releases large amounts of carbon dioxide, which contributes to global warming. Cement-making accounts for some 5% of the world's emissions of Green House Gases (GHG) from anthropogenic activities and twice the amount attributed to aviation. C0 2 , which is the major component of GHG, is released to the atmosphere by various industrial and man-made activities at a.rate higher than the one at which the earth can absorb it. The result is global warming, which has melted glaciers and increased the sea level. If global warming is unchecked, many low level countries like Bangladesh, Egypt, Thailand and Maldives would be submerged in water. There will be drastic change in climatic stability, and the earth would experience thunderstorms and cyclones more frequently. The deserts would extend very fast. Experts believe that recent Tsunami in south-east Asia, cyclone Katrina in US, and Cyclone Wilma in Mexico are due to global warming phenomena. In the meeting of the developed countries of the World at Kyoto, Japan in 1997, the participating countries agreed to arrest global warming by cutting their GHG emission level by 5.2% from 1990 emission level, by 2012, which is historically known as Kyoto protocol. The biggest polluter of the world , namely US, who with 4% of world population contributes 25% of GHG emission of the world was not signatory to the agreement. George W Bush senior was the president of US at that time and he was jokingly called 'Global Warming Bush' for this reason . However other developed nations were serious in implementing the protocol. In the Kyoto protocol , the industrialized nations were allowed the flexibility to implement the emission reduction projects in their own countries, or in any other developing countries like India and claim emission reduction credits from those projects against their own emission reduction targets in their respective ~--· ontrioc Thrrc:: r.nM or Clean Development Mechanism was born, to reduce C0 2 emission through carbon trading and promote it. Projects aimed to reduce C0 2 emission and formulated in line with COM guideline would qualify for monetary gains through carbon trading. The idea was that developed countries get some flexibility in emission reduction in exchange for bringing in some investment to developing nations for projects and technologies that reduce Green House Gases, which happens to be highly prohibitive in their respective countries due to exorbitantly high implementation cost. Unfortunately, the Kyoto protocol expired in 2012, and countries of the world could not come to any common agreement to mitigate global warming in spite of many world summits conducted on this subject. But many countries have voluntarily agreed to cut down GHG emission by suitable measures. PAT scheme introduced in India for cement industry is the offshoot of India's commitment to voluntarily cut down GHG emission. Our Honourable Prime Minister unveiled the National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in June 2008. The Action Plan outlines 8 Missions including National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency (NMEEE). The NMEEE has outlined specific goals for achieving by 2014-15: 1. Annual fuel savings in excess of 23 mtoe* 2. C0 2 emission mitigation of 98 million tons per year * million tonnes of oil equivalent. Perform, Achieve and Trade (PAT), which is part of NMEEE initiative is a market-based mechanism to enhance cost effectiveness of improvements in energy efficiency in energy– intensive large industries and facilities, through certification of energy savings that could be traded. Penalty for non-compliance being ~ 10 lakhs and the value of non-compliance measured in terms of the market value of tonnes of oil equivalent. Designated Consumers (DCs) under the scheme may be allowed to meet their obligation through purchase of Energy saving certificates. PAT mechanism is purely a national scheme. Energy reduction targets under the PAT mechanism do not create any international obligations and has no