ABSTRACT
The cement industry portrays itself as both a source of and a solution to the climate change problem. A solution because societies will have to adapt to more extreme and unpredictable weather – and such adaptation will be largely about building new infrastructure and housing.1 More importantly, the cement industry acknowledges that it is part of the climate change problem, accounting for 25 per cent of industrial carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and about 5 per cent of global CO2 emissions (IEA 2009: 2). This makes it the second largest CO2-emitting industry, after power generation. The sector is now faced with the double challenge of expanding its business while at the same time decreasing its carbon intensity. This chapter asks: How have the climate strategies of European cement companies changed since 2003?2 To what extent and how has the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS), the cornerstone of EU climate policy, affected these changes?
