FICEM and GCCA Seminar sets out Latin American Net Zero goal

FICEM and the Global Cement & Concrete Association (GCCA) hosted an online seminar on 'Acceleration of Net Zero: cement and concrete' on 22 February 2023 to outline the progress being made in the Latin American region.  

Thomas Guillot, GCCA CEO, explained that there is homework be done to adapt the GCCA's Net Zero Road Map launched in 2021 to the local regions to reach net zero for carbon emissions. This means delivering on understanding the numbers for carbon, the individual drivers in each country and policy drivers as well as establishing projects to reach net zero.

The GCCA's Net Zero Accelerator programme has been implemented in Colombia and Thailand. It will eventually be widened to cover 85 per cent of the world. However, it requires focussing on a common policy framework, identifying solutions to waste, industrial hubs, financial support and developing innovative technologies.

Ricardo Pareja Soto, FICEM's director of climate action and innovation, further stated that to keep to the 1.5˚C global temperature rise this century, key performance indicatior (KPI) emission intensity in Latin America will need to reach 520kg CO₂/t of cementitious material produced by 2030 and 370kg CO₂/t of cementitious material produced by 2050. In comparison, Holcim aims for 475kg CO₂ net/t cementitious by 2030.

Colombia, Chile and Argentina will be among the first Latin American countries to form regional net zero road maps for cement and concrete, and will develop regulatory frameworks for the different standards each country has for aggregates, cement and how waste is processed.

Mr Pareja Soto added that, unlike other regions, there is not a carbon pricing scheme in place yet for Latin, which makes it more complicated to assess carbon reduction as local production could be displaced if the penalties for CO₂ emissions are high when carbon pricing is introduced.

Progress is being made though, FICEM has modelled 140 cement plants in the region to the GCCA road map and can now monitor approximately 80 per cent of cement production across the 33 countries in Latin America.