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Irish EPA report shows cement emissions rose by 18% in 2012

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World Cement,


In Ireland, the Environmental Protection Agency has reported that carbon emissions from the cement industry were up 18% in 2012. The EPA calls this a landmark year, reversing a downward trend, and creating significant challenges in the years to come.

The report states that Ireland will meet its Kyoto obligations for the 2008 – 2012 period, though this is largely due to the economic downturn. Cement was not the lone target in the report, which also highlighted a 5.9% increase in emissions from the energy sector related to the increase in coal use, as well as a 3% rise in emissions from agriculture and a 1.6% rise from the industrial and commercial sector. Emissions decreased in the transport and residential sectors.

A low-carbon solution?

Donal O’Riain, chairman and founder of Ecocem, the Irish low-carbon cement company, has called on the cement sector to start investing in carbon-reduction strategies in order to meet the European Union target of an 85% reduction in emissions from 1990 levels by 2050. The company has released a ‘Carbon Reduction Roadmap’ for the cement and concrete sector in response to the government’s request for input into a national roadmap, which is to be formulated in 2014.

“Our aim with this consultation paper is to seek industry input into a final roadmap which will go to government in early-2014 with specific recommendations on how to achieve the low-cost transition to a low-carbon economy in Ireland, while creating new and sustainable jobs,” O’Riain said at an event in Dublin. “Radical change is unavoidable, and the solution requires the participation of all stakeholders in the construction industry.”

 

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