Rising to the climate challenge
As investors, governments and society raise the bar for decarbonisation in the cement industry, Pablo Hofelich, CEO of thyssenkrupp Polysius GmbH, discusses conventional and innovative approaches to climate change mitigation from a supplier’s perspective.
Pablo Hofelich, CEO, thyssenkrupp Polysius GmbH, Germany (©thyssenkruppPolysius GmbH)
In recent years, the cement industry has benefitted from a largely positive development in market demand while at the same time it had to deal with highly volatile energy prices and a great deal of uncertainty, including the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite those difficult circumstances, the big cement companies have upped their efforts to produce cement with considerably lower carbon emissions. Heidelberg Materials, for instance, has set itself the goal of reducing its specific net CO2 emissions to 400kg/t of cementitious material by 2030, while many large cement producers are aiming to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Indeed, investors, governments and society as a whole have raised the bar for decarbonisation in the industry and are promoting it through increasingly strict regulations.
