[CemExec] Howard Klee, WBCSD (Part 1 of 2)

CW:  To help our readers with a baseline, can you provide some key comparative statistics for CO2 and other emissions by country or region? What is the key driver of the differences between regions?

HK: There are indeed regional performance differences for a variety of key performance indicators.  The differences are driven by a variety of factorsÔÇöfuel cost and availability, age of kilns, technology, use of clinker substitutes, etc.    The CSI has looked at data from more than 800 cement facilities around the world, and our database provides the aggregated results.  For example, if we look at the CIS countries, there are still a large number of wet kilns in operation that have relatively high energy consumption and therefore higher emissions (see figure).  On the other hand, many are fueled with natural gas, which has lower emissions than coal-fueled kilns. The Japanese have quite high energy efficiencies.  The Indian cement industry has some of the lowest electricity consumption globally.  Our website shows a number of these trends.  Currently global results are shown, but we will be adding regional data in the next few weeks (see www.wbcsdcement.org/CO2data for additional details).