Road mapping crucial to greening the heavy industry sector, experts at the inaugural of the three-day workshop on 'Virtual Roadmap Workshop for Decarbonisation of Cement Sector in India'
December 20, New Delhi: Underscoring the need for definitive road mapping to decarbonise the cement sector in India -- one of largest emitters of Greenhouse Gases -- stakeholders, industry representatives, and experts taking part in a workshop jointly organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), LeadIT Secretariat, and the Strategic Partnership for the Implementation of Paris Agreement (SPIPA) project, in New Delhi on Monday, December 20, called for policy, technical as well as economic interventions to green the sector.
Delivering her welcome address at the three-day workshop on 'Virtual Roadmap Workshop for Decarbonisation of Cement Sector in India', Dr Vibha Dhawan, Director-General, TERI, pointed out that the Indian industry has made important progress in reducing energy emissions. "But to attain long-term sustainable growth, more fundamental changes are required," Dr Dhawan said.
The building block of modern infrastructure -- the cement sector -- leaves behind a large carbon imprint. Technological solutions which would allow for close to zero-emissions production of cement are within reach. The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT), launched by Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019, along with local partner TERI, is working towards preparing a sectoral roadmap for the cement and steel sector by facilitating dialogues as well as technical and methodological guidance.
Dr Måns Nilsson, Executive Director, Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI), said the decarbonisation processes of heavy industries such as cement, steel and petro-chemicals throw up economic as well as technical challenges. "We need better partnerships between governments and industries and research institutions. We need a better framework for these collaborations; if we do not have a roadmap, the measures will not be coherent," said Dr Nilsson.
In his special address, Mr Klas Molin, Ambassador, Embassy of Sweden, asserted it is time for "actual commitments and plans". "Sweden is happy to team up with India, a key nation in every way, in an area that is vital for our very survival," said Mr Molin. In his address, Mr Ugo Astuto, Ambassador of the European Union to India, said it is imperative to "implement the promises made in Glasgow as rapidly as possible". "We welcome the engagement of the LeadIT on de-carbonizing this important sector, in line with commitments taken at COP 26. Under the SPIPA project, the EU will work together with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to support the LeadIT initiative, through technical inputs and studies," Mr Astuto added.
The LeadIT secretariat has developed analytical tools for road mapping industry transitions. In her opening remarks, Dr Gökçe Mete, Head of LeadIT Secretariat at SEI, said, "We have the industry transition tracker as an example where you can track and trace over 100 roadmaps from around the world on heavy industry." At the recently-concluded COP26 at Glasgow, ministers and CEOs from around the world had collectively agreed to update and design roadmaps for industrial transition as an enabler for the decarbonisation of heavy industries, added Dr Mete.
In her presentation, Dr Somya Joshi, Head of Global Agendas, Climate & Systems Division, emphasised industry roadmap planners are crucial for knowledge sharing, adopting a structural approach to setting and achieving targets, as well as avoiding bottlenecks. "Ambitious targets are often put in place, but it is important to plug the gap between rhetoric and reality," she said.
Cement industry representative Mr Mahendra Singhi, MD & CEO, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, pointed out that carbon capture, its utilisation or storage, is crucial to make the Indian cement sector net-zero. Dr Muthukrishnan M from the GMR group observed that from a business perspective, it is important to consider the economic feasibility of green cement. Mr Jai Kumar Gaurav, Senior Advisor, Climate Change and Circular Economy, GIZ India, highlighted the need to finance the technology needed to decarbonise the sector.
Experts attending the three-day workshop will discuss the vision and challenges in greening the sector.
About TERI
The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is an independent, multi-dimensional research organization, with capabilities in policy research, technology development, and implementation. Headquartered in New Delhi, TERI has regional centres and campuses in Gurugram, Bengaluru, Guwahati, Mumbai, Panaji, and Nainital, supported by a multi-disciplinary team of scientists, sociologists, economists, engineers, administrative professional and state-of-the-art infrastructure.
About LeadIT
The Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) was launched by Sweden and India at the UN Climate Action Summit in New York in 2019. Its 35 members, 16 countries, and 19 companies come from all continents and work together to reach net-zero emissions in the industry. LeadIT commits to supporting governments and industries to co-produce stakeholder-led roadmaps to achieving low-carbon industry transformation. Industry transition roadmaps address the industrial transition of sectoral value chains and provide actionable measures on technology, policy, public-private partnership, and finance to accelerate transition, also considering the industry sectors competitiveness and socioeconomic aspects of transition (e.g., jobs, social protection measures, re-skilling Industrial workers, etc.). The LeadIT Secretariat, hosted at the Stockholm Environment Institute, has obtained support from the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change, Government of India to host workshops to initiate the process for preparing the sectoral roadmap for the cement and steel sector. The Ministry has approved the cooperation of the Secretariat with TERI as a local partner.
About SPIPA project
The Strategic Partnership for the Implementation of the Paris Agreement (SPIPA) project has the Ministry of Environment, Forest, and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as the nodal Ministry. The SPIPA project is being implemented through the Delegation of the European Union to India, in close collaboration with GIZ India. It is funded from the EU Partnership Instrument and by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (BMU).
The overall objective of the SPIPA project is to support policy dialogue between EU and India, enhance cooperation between India, EU, EU Member states and other key stakeholders across the following three key focus areas: 1. Networking, Capacity Building and Knowledge Management, 2. Mitigation and 3. Adaptation.
For further details, contact:
P Anima – animap@teri.res.in
Sumit Bansal – sumit.bansal@teri.res.in