John Kline, VP of technical expertise at Lafarge, gave a well-received paper at the 54th IEEE-IAS PCA Cement Industry Technical Conference in San Antonio, Texas, on 14 - 17 May 2012 entitled 'Cement and CO2 - a victim of success.'
John pointed out that global CO2 emissions were 29Bt (billion tonnes) in 2007 and will be 57Bt in 2050 with a business-as-usual approach. The cement industry will need to achieve very substantial reductions in total CO2 emissions (in the order of a 23% fall) to help achieve a target of less than 14Bt by 2050, 'in order to limit any temperature increase to 3°C.'
By comparison concrete accounts for 83% by weight of all the construction materials used around the world. John said that concrete can be used to produce energy efficient housing, particularly if used in insulated concrete forms. He also pointed out that the CO2 emission from cement manufacture makes up a very small total amount ot total emissions, given the huge amounts of concrete produced. John stated that there is still great potential for the substitution of clinker in cement.
He concluded that the industry needs to actively promote the overall carbon efficiency of concrete and to make sure that everyone knows that at least for today, cement and concrete are the most CO2 efficient building materials.
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