A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries
Global industrialization and urbanization processes enabled a diverse cement production boom over the past three decades, as cement is the most important building construction material. Consequently, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial CO _2 emitter (∼25% of global industrial CO _2...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
IOP Publishing
2022-01-01
|
| Series: | Environmental Research Letters |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac48b5 |
| _version_ | 1797747118007386112 |
|---|---|
| author | Cuihong Chen Ruochong Xu Dan Tong Xinying Qin Jing Cheng Jun Liu Bo Zheng Liu Yan Qiang Zhang |
| author_facet | Cuihong Chen Ruochong Xu Dan Tong Xinying Qin Jing Cheng Jun Liu Bo Zheng Liu Yan Qiang Zhang |
| author_sort | Cuihong Chen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Global industrialization and urbanization processes enabled a diverse cement production boom over the past three decades, as cement is the most important building construction material. Consequently, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial CO _2 emitter (∼25% of global industrial CO _2 emissions) globally. In this study, the Global Cement Emission Database, which encompasses anthropogenic CO _2 emissions of individual production units worldwide for 1990–2019, was developed. A recently developed unit-level China Cement Emission Database was then applied to override China’s data and the combination of two databases is used to reveal the unit characteristics of CO _2 emissions and ages for global cement plants, assess large disparities in national and regional CO _2 emissions, growth rates and developmental stages from 1990–2019, and identify key emerging countries of carbon emissions and commitment. This study finds that globally, CO _2 emissions from the cement industry have increased from 0.86 Gt in 1990 to 2.46 Gt in 2019 (increasing by 186%). More importantly, the large CO _2 emissions and the striking growth rates from those emerging countries, including most of the developing countries in the Asia region and the Middle East and Africa region, are clearly identified. For example, the Middle East and Africa, including mostly developing or underdeveloped countries, only represented 0.07 Gt CO _2 in 1990 (8.4% of the total), in contrast to 0.26 Gt (10.4% of the total) CO _2 in 2019, which is a 4.5% average growth rate during 1990–2019. Further, the intensive expansion of large and new facilities since 2005 in Asia and the Middle East and Africa has resulted in heavy commitment (90.1% of global commitment in 2019), and mitigation threats in the future considering their increasing emissions (the national annual growth rate can be up to >80%) and growing infrastructure construction (∼50% of clinker capacity operating ⩽10 years). Our results highlight the cement industry’s development and young infrastructure in emerging economies; thus, future increasing cement demand and corresponding carbon commitment would pose great challenges to future decarbonization and climate change mitigation. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:46:35Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-01674969eb5345fbbca50ec4db0f67c9 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1748-9326 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:46:35Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Environmental Research Letters |
| spelling | doaj.art-01674969eb5345fbbca50ec4db0f67c92023-08-09T15:23:26ZengIOP PublishingEnvironmental Research Letters1748-93262022-01-0117404400710.1088/1748-9326/ac48b5A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countriesCuihong Chen0Ruochong Xu1Dan Tong2https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3787-0707Xinying Qin3Jing Cheng4Jun Liu5Bo Zheng6https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8344-3445Liu Yan7Qiang Zhang8Department of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of China; Satellite Application Center for Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China , Beijing 100094, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Environmental Engineering, School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science and Technology , Beijing 100083, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Environment and Ecology, Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University , Shenzhen 518055, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Earth System Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Earth System Modeling, Institute for Global Change Studies, Tsinghua University , Beijing 100084, People’s Republic of ChinaGlobal industrialization and urbanization processes enabled a diverse cement production boom over the past three decades, as cement is the most important building construction material. Consequently, the cement industry is the second-largest industrial CO _2 emitter (∼25% of global industrial CO _2 emissions) globally. In this study, the Global Cement Emission Database, which encompasses anthropogenic CO _2 emissions of individual production units worldwide for 1990–2019, was developed. A recently developed unit-level China Cement Emission Database was then applied to override China’s data and the combination of two databases is used to reveal the unit characteristics of CO _2 emissions and ages for global cement plants, assess large disparities in national and regional CO _2 emissions, growth rates and developmental stages from 1990–2019, and identify key emerging countries of carbon emissions and commitment. This study finds that globally, CO _2 emissions from the cement industry have increased from 0.86 Gt in 1990 to 2.46 Gt in 2019 (increasing by 186%). More importantly, the large CO _2 emissions and the striking growth rates from those emerging countries, including most of the developing countries in the Asia region and the Middle East and Africa region, are clearly identified. For example, the Middle East and Africa, including mostly developing or underdeveloped countries, only represented 0.07 Gt CO _2 in 1990 (8.4% of the total), in contrast to 0.26 Gt (10.4% of the total) CO _2 in 2019, which is a 4.5% average growth rate during 1990–2019. Further, the intensive expansion of large and new facilities since 2005 in Asia and the Middle East and Africa has resulted in heavy commitment (90.1% of global commitment in 2019), and mitigation threats in the future considering their increasing emissions (the national annual growth rate can be up to >80%) and growing infrastructure construction (∼50% of clinker capacity operating ⩽10 years). Our results highlight the cement industry’s development and young infrastructure in emerging economies; thus, future increasing cement demand and corresponding carbon commitment would pose great challenges to future decarbonization and climate change mitigation.https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac48b5unit-level databasesize- and age-based characteristicsemerging countriesstriking growthcarbon commitment |
| spellingShingle | Cuihong Chen Ruochong Xu Dan Tong Xinying Qin Jing Cheng Jun Liu Bo Zheng Liu Yan Qiang Zhang A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries Environmental Research Letters unit-level database size- and age-based characteristics emerging countries striking growth carbon commitment |
| title | A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| title_full | A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| title_fullStr | A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| title_full_unstemmed | A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| title_short | A striking growth of CO2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| title_sort | striking growth of co2 emissions from the global cement industry driven by new facilities in emerging countries |
| topic | unit-level database size- and age-based characteristics emerging countries striking growth carbon commitment |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac48b5 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT cuihongchen astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT ruochongxu astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT dantong astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT xinyingqin astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT jingcheng astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT junliu astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT bozheng astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT liuyan astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT qiangzhang astrikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT cuihongchen strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT ruochongxu strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT dantong strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT xinyingqin strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT jingcheng strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT junliu strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT bozheng strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT liuyan strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries AT qiangzhang strikinggrowthofco2emissionsfromtheglobalcementindustrydrivenbynewfacilitiesinemergingcountries |