PT Holcim Indonesia Tbk seeks accumulative carbon credit worth US$50-70m in 10 years from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC).

The credit here is given following the corporate action to use the agriculture waste as the coal substitute energy.

Country Manager Geocycle of Holcim Indonesia Vincent Aloysius the carbon credit value is based on assumption the company could cut down the emission of CO2 by 500,000 at average per year in the next 10 years.

"With the program of Clean Development Mechanism [CDM], Holcim could cut the average CO2 by 500,000 per year in the next 10 years. The carbon credit value normally disbursed stands ranging from US$0 to US$15 per ton," he briefed the press yesterday.

Assuming the program runs as expected, the company at least scrapes up US$5 million per year or accumulatively US$50 million in 10 years.

The carbon credit fund here will be allotted to boost the CDM program so as to increase the use of agriculture waste as the low emission fuel to substitute coal energy.

"The initial CDM program can reduce the consumption of coals by 200,000 tons in ten years or equals to 3-4 percent of the HOlcim total energy consumption. It still has long way to go," he said.

Corporate Communication Manager of Holcim Indonesia Budi Primawan added the company has got UNFCC recognition for the success in CO2 emission cut through the use of agriculture waste as the energy substitute of coal.

"We received the recognition in September. But we have not got any carbon credit given that there should be audited by the third party to verify the already created emission cut," he said.

Since 1990, Holcim worldwide has cut down the emission of CO2 per ton cement by 16.3 percent. In Indonesia, Holcim has cut down the emission by 12 percent in the past five years. The target is to cut down 20 percent emission by 2010.

Dealing with performance, Budi said the company targets a 5.4 -5.6Mt of cement sales as from the total annual production of 7.9Mt.

"The number of sales volume here goes along the target which increase from that of 4 million tons last year. Next year, we should make calculation," he said.