The Spanish cement industry wants to be carbon neutral

The main cement companies operating in Spain have presented an emission reduction plan until 2050 that foresees carbon neutrality for that year through various actions focused on the electrification and digitalization of production processes. Morán recalled that the plan presented by the industry is also part of the decarbonization process that the Government is already committing through the Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (Pniec), which also provides for neutrality in the middle of the century.

The Secretary of State stressed that Europe has already launched projects aimed at the ‘green’ economic reactivation, especially in the framework of the recovery after the health crisis, after noting that this type of project entails greater long-term savings than conventional fiscal stimulus measures.

For its part, the recovery and resilience plan of the Executive of Pedro Sánchez, which has four fundamental pillars among which the energy transition is positioned, allocates 12% of the entire budget for the reconstruction and preservation of resources, the improvement of water management planning and other provisions aimed at the best environmental ones.

“Spain has a lot to contribute, it is one of the most vulnerable economies to climate change, but we have experience, resources, solvency and capacity, for which we must promote public-private collaboration,” said Morán.

Roadmap

The cement sector’s plan is to reduce emissions in each of its five stages of activity, starting with a 66% decrease by 2050 from its first cycle of the process, that of the clinker, in which the minerals necessary to obtain cement are treated. Subsequently, the industry expects to achieve an additional reduction of 20% at the stage in which cement comes into play, especially with the electrification of the vehicle fleet that transports it or even that manufactures it in the facilities.

The replacement of polluting vehicles by ‘clean’ will also allow another 5% reduction in the concrete stage, before moving to the construction stage and the last carbonation stage, in which the concrete acts as a carbon sink, triggering a last additional reduction of 9% and thus completing the 100% expected by 2050.

Energy prices

The president of Oficemen, Víctor García Brosa, took advantage of his speech at the event to cite the two main factors that are making the sector lose competitiveness and that have caused 20% of the companies in the industry to have closed in Europe in recent years. On the one hand, he pointed out the inequality of costs in Spain compared to countries outside the European Union, which do not have to assume environmental costs.

“European regulation is useless if the import of products from countries with less demanding legislation is allowed,” he explained, calling for a border tax to protect the community industry. The second factor he has cited is the price of energy, since he defends that in Spain “it is more expensive than in the rest of the surrounding countries”. However, he has valued “very positively” the recently approved electro-intensive statute, although assuring that the sector “does not ask for subsidies but equal conditions”.

Source: Ecoticias