9 June 2021 - Mr. Mahendra Singhi, Managing Director & CEO of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, and WCA Director of the Board, has been invited to represent the prestigious Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition as Carbon Pricing Champion.
For more than 20 years the cement industry has been working on CO2 reduction. The main levers to reduce CO2 have been improving energy efficiency, replacing coal with alternative lower carbon fuels, and reducing the proportion of clinker in cement by replacing it with other cementitious materials with lower carbon footprints, such as metakaolin, natural pozzolans, fly ash and slag.
These levers still offer substantial CO2 reduction opportunities, but as companies make progress the marginal cost of realising the lower carbon benefits increases. Most of the changes that have been made to date have yielded carbon savings and cost savings. While there are still opportunities to do this, many of the carbon reduction opportunities that are still available require significant investment without commensurate returns.
Now, Mr. Mahendra Singhi, Managing Director & CEO of Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Limited, and WCA Director of the Board, has been invited to represent the prestigious Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition as Carbon Pricing Champion.
The Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition (CPLC) is a global coalition promoted by the World Bank Group. It is represented by 34 national and sub-national governments, 172 private sector organizations 100 strategic partners NGOs, business organisations, and universities. The CPLC is a voluntary initiative aimed at accelerating climate change by securing the place of carbon pricing on the global agenda and is considered to be one of the world's most credible institutions that encourage and bring together leaders from the government, business, academia and civil society to address various issues related to climate change.
As a company, Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd. has always been committed to the betterment of the environment and consistently focused on sustainable practices. The Group is recognised one of the 5 Climate Defenders by BBC World, is more than five times water positive and rated globally no.1 in the cement sector by CDP on business readiness for a low carbon economy transition. With one of the lowest carbon footprints in cement sector, Dalmia Cement is one of the most profitable cement company in India. The Group has also pledged its support for the newly launched green initiative Terra Carta – a sustainable roadmap to 2030 created to make businesses move towards a purposeful and sustainable future. Also, as an important member of the World Cement Association (WCA), DCBL is taking ambitious steps towards ensuring that the whole industry reduces GHG emissions.
Carbon pricing promises to change the economics of decarbonisation by charging a fee to dispose of CO2 in the air. Projects which reduce carbon emissions will have additional benefits by reducing the carbon credits that cement companies must buy. On average, the cement industry emits over 600 Kg of CO2 per ton of cement. With CO2 prices around the current European ETS price of Euro50/t, this would more than double the typical variable cost of production. If the carbon price is set too high this could provide an unsustainable burden on the production of concrete which is essential to development and urbanisation, especially in poorer countries. If the carbon price is too low it will fail to provide sufficient incentives for the investments needed to reduce CO2 emissions.
Ian Riley, WCA CEO, comments: "At WCA we are delighted that Mahendra Singhi has been appointed to represent the prestigious Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition as Carbon Pricing Champion. Not only is Mr Singhi a director of WCA but he is a pioneer in decarbonising the cement sector and changing the mindset from hard to abate to possible to abate".