Early stakeholder consultations in Peru identified the cement sector as one of the sectors with highest potential for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG). The industry was responsible for around 6.1 millions tons of CO2e in 2010, approximately 8% of national GHG emissions when the land-use change and forestry sector is excluded.
In response, the Government of Peru has recently completed development of a Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Action (NAMA) to transform Peru’s cement industry. The overall objective of the NAMA is to establish the enabling environment to promote low carbon development in the industry while raising its competitiveness at the same time.
The NAMA was jointly designed by the Ministries of Environment and Production and cement sector with the technical assistance of the leading international consulting firm Perspectives Climate Change and the UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building Programme. The NAMA was officially presented at a stakeholder workshop on March 3rd 2016 in Lima, where approximately 50 key stakeholders from the cement and other private sectors and key ministries gathered to discuss preparations for implementation.
The workshop was the culmination of a comprehensive stakeholder driven process established at an early stage when the Government of Peru conducted the first consultations to identify and prioritize focus sectors for NAMA development.
Cement industry in Peru
One of the reasons why there is a strong potential to reduce GHG emissions in the cement in Peru is that the cement industry is highly concentrated – three national firms represent more than 95% of the market. And many common practice measures already implemented in multi-national cement firms – such as lowering clinker content or co-processing – commercial maker are not implemented in Peru. When the NAMA activities are fully implemented, the total emission reduction is expected to reach around 3.5 million tons of CO2e per year compared to business-as-usual.
Objectives and Sustainable Development Benefits
The NAMA will encourage the introduction of three main measures to promote low carbon production:
Co-processing – e.g. use of waste as a fossil fuel substitute in clinker production kilns.
Clinker substitution to reduce the clinker / cement ratio by replacing clinker with pozzolan/ steel slag/ limestone filler in cement production.
Encourage energy efficient best practice technologies to decrease energy consumption at cement plants.
The NAMA will accomplish these objectives by establishing the following enabling frameworks:
Cleaner Production Agreement will be signed with cement companies to obtain mitigation commitments from industry stakeholders and an implementation plan prepared for achieving this;
A measurement reporting and verification system introduced that uses international standards of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s Cement Sustainability Initiative; and
Regulations, standards and/or codes that allow the use of cement with a lower carbon content in domestic building applications as well as the introduction of co-processing and energy efficiency measures.
The UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) programme will continue to support the Government of Peru to embark on NAMA implementation readiness activities while other sources of funding are being identified for the implementation of the NAMA.
In addition to the GHG emission reductions, the main sustainable development benefits related to this NAMA are:
increased competitiveness due to lower production costs
reduced air pollution leading to health benefits and
job creation as a result of the application of new practices.
Institutional Arrangements for Implementation
Implementation of the NAMA will be supported by various ministries and governmental agencies, and the cement companies. The Ministry of Production will serve as the focal point, being responsible for the coordination and implementation of the NAMA, while the Ministry of Environment will take the lead in raising awareness about the low carbon processes for Peru’s cement industry. Both ministries have developed an alliance with Peruvian cement companies through the Peruvian Association of Cement Producers (ASOCEM), which will support implementation of NAMA activities in their sector.
Cement companies on their end, will implement the mitigation technologies, meeting voluntary commitments that are set to be defined in the Clean Production Agreement. The Ministry of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, will promote the use of cement with low carbon content in government-supported housing projects by adapting construction regulation accordingly. The Directorate of Environment Quality in the Ministry of Environment will introduce regulations for waste management that include the option for co-processing. Finally, the Agency for Assessment and Environmental Control (OEFA) has confirmed interest in promoting and rewarding the proposed eco-friendly measures.
The development of the NAMA was supported by the UNDP Low Emission Capacity Building (LECB) Programme through generous contributions by the European Commission, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB), and the Australian Government.