Trucost Blog

The Chinese Government recently announced that more than 2,000 of China's dirtiest manufacturers, including cement producers, will have to close factories as the country tries to meet its carbon and energy intensity targets.

Over the next five years, the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases and second-biggest economy has pledged to cut carbon intensity by 17% and energy intensity by 16% from current levels. China-based Anhui Conch Cement's operations emit only 0.16 tonnes of greenhouse gases, measured in carbon dioxide equivalents (CO₂e), per tonne of production. Anhui is the most carbon efficient of all Chinese cement manufacturers in Trucost's database - its carbon intensity is 85% lower than the average of 1.11 tonnes of CO₂e per tonne of production. Cement-manufacturing peers in China - China National Building Material and BBMG - are more than twice as carbon intensive, at 0.49 and 0.53 tonnes of CO₂e/tonne of production respectively.

Anhui Conch has invested in new technologies in order to minimise energy consumption and so reduce its Scope 1 emissions. It uses dry process cement production, which requires less energy than a wet process as no fuel is needed to evaporate water. It also adopted low temperature waste heat power generation, which uses waste heat contained in exhaust gases to drive a turbine to generate electricity for use in cement production, minimising the consumption of fossil fuels.

If China National Building Material and BBMG followed the example set by Anhui Conch, they could make significant carbon savings. For example, if they achieved the same emissions intensity as their peer, they would save 19,427,927 and 3,948,581 tonnes of CO₂e respectively. The chart below shows the above companies' Scope 1 carbon emissions and carbon efficiencies in 2009.

Chart 1: Chinese cement manufacturers' 2009 emissions and efficiencies

Find out more Trucost services for companies

Find out more Trucost services for financial institutions