WBCSD’s Cement Sustainability Initiative Urges G8 Leaders to Adopt Sectoral Approaches to Accelera

WBCSD's Cement Sustainability Initiative Urges G8 Leaders to Adopt Sectoral Approaches to Accelerate Reductions in Carbon Emissions

Paris, 2 July 2008 - The WBCSD's Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI), currently co-chaired by Lafarge and Taiheiyo Cement, today called on G8 members and the UNFCCC to accelerate the creation of a policy framework that will allow the development of effective sectoral approaches.

At a meeting in Paris, Mr Bruno Lafont, Chairman and CEO of Lafarge, was joined by the President of the WBCSD Mr Bjorn Stigson in encouraging the concept of sectoral approaches to be tabled at next week's G8 Summit.

"While discussions are underway to reach a global climate agreement, complementary sectoral approaches could be put into place under which key industry players could work together to accelerate CO2 reductions," explained Mr Stigson.

The cement sector is well placed to adopt a sectoral approach on CO2 emissions, thanks to a CO2 measuring and reporting protocol developed in 2002 by the WBCSD's Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI). This protocol is now being used by 80% of the world's cement industry.
"As an industry, we are leading in the adoption of tools that can be used to target climate change. Member companies of the CSI have set voluntary individual CO2 reduction targets, which are delivering encouraging results and we have today announced a significant drop in emissions per tonne of cement produced by our member," said Mr Lafont.

Figures released by the CSI show that the average net specific emissions per tonne of cement of its 18 members have fallen from over 760kg CO2/tonne in 1990 to 670kg in 2007. This reduction equates to CO2 savings in 2007 of over 70 million tonnes, compared to 1990 performance.

Read full article on the WBCSD website

Source: WBCSD website