LafargeHolcim executives bring action plan to UN Climate Conference

Sources: LafargeHolcim Ltd., Jona, Switzerland; United Nations; CP staff

The world’s leading cement, aggregate and concrete producer will offer energy and environmental management perspectives at four United Nations Climate Conference sessions, topped by the introduction of a World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD)/Cement Sustainability Initiative project. Also known as (Conference of Parties) COP-21, the event runs through December 11 in Paris and involves 150-plus countries representing nearly 90 percent of carbon emissions across the globe.

LafargeHolcim CEO Eric Olsen will represent construction materials interests in a (Lima-Paris Action Agenda) LPAA Buildings Action Session addressing how sector stakeholders can work to scale up solutions to local circumstances, and “Pathways to a low carbon economy,” a government and business leader-geared panel hosted by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership.

LafargeHolcim Co-Chairman Bruno Lafont will join a carbon pricing debate organized by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change-led coalition, “We Mean Business,” and participate in the WBCSD’s formal Low Carbon Technology Partnership initiative (LCTPi) launch and LCTPi Cement introduction.

COP-21 organizers aim for participating countries to commit to curtailing carbon emissions to levels at which global temperatures—as projected in climate science models—climb less than 2°C by 2100. LafargeHolcim lists that benchmark and two companion expectations from the Paris Conference: a) comparable and coordinated efforts to create a level-playing field and a competitive environment; and, b) progressively coordinated use of carbon pricing mechanisms.

The producer arrives at COP-21 with these commitments: to remain the most carbon efficient international cement producer, such that CO2 emissions per tonne will drop 40 percent by 2030 against 1990 levels; and, through 2030, to contribute to a sustainable construction value chain as demonstrated by annual avoidance of 10 million tonnes of CO2 emissions during sold products’ lifecycle.

“Our approach is to generate, monitor and report [greenhouse gas] savings right through to the use of our solutions through their life cycle,” LafargeHolcim reports. “We are committed to reducing CO2 emissions across the entire construction value chain.”