The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) urged technological intervention to reduce these carbon emissions from the cement sector, which would help India to achieve its net-zero emission objectives.

The RBI said that India’s goal of obtaining half of its energy needs from renewable sources and reducing the economy’s carbon intensity by 45% by 2030 requires a policy relook across sectors, especially where carbon emission is high, and the cement industry is one of them.

Recent advancements in green technology, notably in reverse calcination, present promising potential for the cement industry.

As per the RBI report, India’s cement output is likely to reach 381 million tonnes (mt) by 2021-22, while consumers would be about 379 mt. The report noted that a renewed focus on large infrastructure projects such as the National Infrastructure Pipeline, low-cost housing (Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana), and the government’s push for the SMART cities mission would likely increase cement demand in the future.

It said that the net-zero emission regulations commitment of India is threatened by this promise.

The RBI’s analysis is by the India Energy Outlook 2021, which states that most of the buildings that will exist in India in 2040 have yet to be completed, and the country’s growing economy, population, urbanisation, and industrialisation would all contribute to this.

Given this future situation, the RBI has advised that India’s economic goals be aligned with its climate objectives by integrating developing green technology solutions.

It explained that calcination accounts for a large portion of CO2 emissions in cement production, with the balance coming from coal and other fossil fuels.

The studies show that the most efficient strategy to decarbonise the cement industry is to capture CO2 emissions before they could enter the environment and store it through reverse calcination.

Currently, reverse calcination can sequester up to 5% of cement emissions, but with advancements in technology, this might be increased to 30%. This method may be improved even further by using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels to do the calcination.

RBI said that biomass such as municipal and industrial waste may be utilised as an alternative to fossil fuels.

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