- PPC Cement is the largest cement manufacturer in Southern Africa producing a total of 11.6-million tonnes of cement a year in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Botswana, Ethiopia and Democratic Republic of Congo.
- The company has set interim targets to cut emissions 10% by 2025, 27% by 2030 and net zero by 2050.
- The company made the announcement in their first comprehensive response to the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate- Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) for climate disclosures this morning.
“The CO2 challenges for cement are significant. Within Sub-Saharan Africa, the industry’s ability to decarbonise is inhibited by the lack of viable options to reduce emissions, the lack of consumer willingness to pay for greener products, and the lack of standards, testing and track records of new products,” PPC said in the report.
The cement industry is one of heavy industry’s biggest carbon emitters account for around 7% of the worlds carbon emissions. Cement manufacturers produces about 0.9 pounds of CO2 for every pound of cement. Since cement is only a fraction of the constituents in concrete, manufacturing a cubic yard of concrete (about 3900 lbs) is responsible for emitting about 400 lbs of CO2.
The industry is under pressure globally to reduce their carbon emissions. Read more
PPC aims to spend R664m by 2025 cutting its emissions to 680kg of CO2 per tonne of “cementitious product” from 750kg now. By 2030 the aim is to reduce that to 550kg at a cost that is yet to be determined.
In addition to exploring the use of waste from the production process to produce energy, PPC is seeking to build renewable energy plants or acquire green power in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Rwanda, it said.
Circular economy
The company, which says its own plants are already having to deal with climate change in the form of increased rainfall and temperatures in some areas, expects to benefit from a boom in renewable energy and hydrogen infrastructure over coming decades. Cement will be needed for those plants, it said.
Link to PPC’s full report HERE
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
