hermeneutical place
Recently, the Spanish newspaper, “El Salto”, an independent daily news, research, debate and analysis, published an investigation related to this Industry. In said publication, it is stated that cement contributes more to the climate crisis than the entire global fleet of trucks.
Cement companies are responsible for regarding 7% of global greenhouse gas emissions. In Spain, this industry produced in 2018 more than 15 million tons of CO2, increasing its contribution to the climate crisis by 3% in one year. The rebound in construction might keep these numbers rising.
When talking regarding the climate crisis, the fossil fuel industry always appears as one of its obvious culprits. However, there is another key sector that goes more unnoticed: construction; specifically, that of the manufacture of cement, an essential material also for the manufacture of concrete.
Every year more than 4,000 million tons of cement are produced in the world, according to the Making Concrete Change report. (change the concrete), issued in June 2018 by the British Chatham House, also known as the Royal Institute of International Affairs. The contribution of this industry to global warming is measured in gigatonnes of CO2 and it accounts for no less than around 7% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, more than what is produced by the entire world fleet of trucks, according to data from the International Energy Agency.
We are talking regarding the third largest industrial energy consumer sector in the world, responsible for 7% of industrial energy use, and the second global industrial emitter of CO2. And there are sources that raise their contribution to global GHG emissions to 8%, as the Chatham House report itself points out.
Such figures are due to the huge amount of cement produced globally, together with the very nature of the process to obtain it. This mortar essential in construction is obtained by grinding Clinker, the main component of common or Portland cement. To obtain it, a limestone calcination process is first produced, a procedure that releases large amounts of CO2 contained in the material, in order to obtain lime, a component that is later burned in ovens at temperatures of 1,400-1,500ºC.
Additionally, to the above, we must add the complaints regarding the burning of waste in the furnaces of these plants —the so-called waste-derived fuels (CDR), made from theoretically non-hazardous waste— among which are tires, plastic, wood waste, paper, cardboard, among others.
In Guatemala, it will be necessary to indicate that estimates suppose the contamination of this sector in thousands of tons of C02, without any regulation for this industry to mitigate or compensate its obese carbon footprint.
It is necessary to return to vernacular materials of a friendly origin with the planet, it is not possible that in universities if they continue to see concrete as the only option for modern constructions, we must focus more on local realities.
As an example, what happens in eastern Guatemala, concrete houses with thick terraces, which turn them into real ovens to make quesadillas, imagine what it is like to be in those buildings above 35 degrees Celsius, this is for another text, For now, let’s look at the pollution caused by cement and try to use materials that are less polluting and more friendly to the natural environment and the planet.
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