Chinese Cement Companies Accounting for CO2 Emissions

Last month, Chinese cement companies took the first steps towards measuring and managing CO2 emissions across the entire cement sector.

Cement production is a major source of carbon dioxide emissions: five percent of the global total. And China’s cement sector all by itself accounts for 45 percent of global production.

Representatives from nearly 75 companies and organizations attended a first of its kind training workshop on January 21-23rd, which convened as part of the Asia-Pacific Partnership in Beijing. WRI was the lead organizer of the workshop along with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, built on Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) and the ISO-recognized GHG Protocol.

The workshop coincided with the launch of the CO2 Centre of Excellence at the China Building Materials Academy (CBMA) in Beijing. The GHG Protocol will work to develop the capacity within the CBMA to provide technical assistance to China’s 5,000 cement companies to both measure and manage GHG emissions and climate impacts.

Workshop Participants: Pankaj Bhatia (WRI) with Liu Ming (NDRC, China)

Why is this workshop significant?

For one, it represents a significant step forward by the Chinese government in its clean development and climate change strategies for the industrial sector. The Chinese government has planned a 3-phase strategy to collect data from the cement companies, starting with the multinationals and expanding to medium and small enterprises. The GHG Protocol is a perfect foundation for this strategy; it includes tools and methodologies for measuring emissions at both the corporate and cement sector level. Furthermore, the initiative adds to other policies that China is developing in its attempts to address its fast-growing emissions. Other policies include an economy-wide efficiency target, along with aggressive renewable energy and vehicle efficiency standards. and The GHG Protocol is an excellent foundation for this work. The next steps are to take lessons learned from the preliminary workshop and scale up to include China’s approximately 5,000 cement companies. Virtually all of these companies need training in using the GHG Protocol. ### Related Links ###

• GHG Protocol
• Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI)
  
• Making Cement Sustainable: Carbon and Other Emissions
• GHG Protocol tools for estimating GHG emissions from cement manufacture
• China Program Gains Significant Momentum
• WRI hosts workshop on Energy Savings and CO2 Reductions in the Chinese Cement Industry (November 2007)