Germany: Christian Knell, the president of the German Cement Works Association (VDZ), has warned that meeting climate change goals was leading to ‘considerable’ costs for the cement industry. He said that ‘suitable boundary conditions would have to be created’ for climate change issues and noted that on-going trends in European emissions trading and the ‘rapidly’ increasing price of CO2 were leading to mounting costs. “To be able to realise our efforts in terms of climate protection and at the same time not lose competitiveness, we need research policy-related support for our investment in breakthrough technologies and the corresponding demonstration projects,” said Knell.
Knell made the comments during the opening ceremony of the 8th International VDZ Congress 2018 in Duesseldorf. He identified climate protection and digitalisation as key issues for the future of the industry.
