The General Directorate of Climate Change and Environmental Quality of the Generalitat (Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fishing, and Food) and Ciment Català approved, in their working session on September 12, the Aggregate Report for 2023 of the Voluntary Agreement for resource efficiency and transition to a circular economy signed between the two entities. Among the results achieved during the period, it stands out that the emission of 339,000 tons of CO2 from fossil fuel sources was avoided thanks to the energy recovery from 280,000 tons of waste.
This amount represents 47% of the total thermal energy consumed in cement kilns in Catalonia. Although the percentage of energy-recovered tons and avoided CO₂ from fossil sources is trending upward, due to increased availability of competitive alternative fuels and investments in the factories, the percentage is still far from the target set in the Agreement, which was 60% for 2020. Energy recovery from waste prevents its disposal and is an essential practice for achieving sector decarbonization. In this regard, the participants in the working session emphasized the need for more quantity and variety of waste to meet the established goals.
Other notable figures from the report include that, in 2023, the Catalan cement industry invested nearly €6.25 million in environmental improvements in areas such as energy efficiency and the prevention and reduction of particulate emissions into the atmosphere from material storage, handling, and transportation operations.
As in previous years, 100% compliance was achieved in all emission limit values for each of the atmospheric emission sources. These emission limit values do not exceed the emission levels associated with the use of the best available techniques established by the European Union.
For its part, the material recovery of waste and the use of by-products increased significantly compared to 2022 (from 278,000 to 360,000 tons), as did the tons of avoided natural resource extraction (from 288,000 to 360,000 tons). Once again, the high absolute values of recovered waste that are prevented from going to landfill should be highlighted.