Recording video here
INTRODUCTION
CEMBUREAU, the European Cement Association, is delighted to announce its 2021 summit - Cementing Europe's Future: Action Through Policy - on 12 October. The event will be live-streamed via Clevercast. To register, please click here.
Following the success of our first annual conference – Cementing Europe’s Future: Building the Green Deal – this event aims to highlight the key role the cement industry has to play towards Europe’s 2050 ambitions and how this can be accelerated through policy.
2020 was a defining moment for the European cement industry with the publication of its Carbon Neutrality Roadmap. The journey towards 2050 has begun. Now is the time to start putting our plans and ambitions into motion, in which the EU and the cement industry collaborate together towards mutual end goals – Cementing Europe’s Future: Action Through Policy.
This summit takes place at a crucial time, right after the publication of the Commission’s “Fit for 55%” package and ahead of new EU policy initiatives on the sustainable built environment. It will serve as a communication and discussion platform to delve deeper into the sector’s plans for carbon neutrality along its value chain by 2050, through its “5C” approach covering clinker-cement-concrete-construction-carbonation. The event will also discuss how policy frameworks will be instrumental in supporting this industrial transformation towards carbon neutrality.
PROGRAM
In order to start the day’s discussions, CEMBUREAU President, Isidoro Miranda, will make the opening remarks. This will be followed by a keynote speech by Gerassimos Thomas, Director General, DG Taxation and Customs Union.
The first session is entitled A Cement Industry “Fit for 55%”? and will focus on the legislative package that the European Commission is expected to publish in June 2021 – which will contain key proposals on the review of the EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) and Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms (CBAM). The cement industry’s efforts to CO2 emission reduction in the manufacturing of clinker and cement, the first two “Cs” of our decarbonisation strategy, will also be considered in the session. As the legislative process on the overall package starts, the panel will discuss the key policies which can allow an acceleration of CO2 cuts in the cement industry and beyond – this will include a number of key policy issues such as access to CBAM, ETS, and industrial decarbonisation.
The speakers for this session will be drawn from a variety of backgrounds and will include senior representatives from the European Commission, European Parliament, academia/think-tank, and the cement industry. So far, speakers for this session include:
- Mette Quinn, Head of Unit, DG CLIMA
- Tomas Wyns, Project Researcher Environment & Sustainable Development, VUB
- Jon Morrish, CEO, Western and Southern Europe, HeidelbergCement
The second session is entitled A Carbon Neutral Built Environment & the Role of Concrete, and will focus on the EU’s exciting agenda to decarbonise European buildings. It will focus on the downstream market from cement and thus on the other three “Cs”: concrete-construction-carbonation. This session will discuss policy initiatives to create a sustainable built environment in Europe, as well as the contribution from the cement and concrete industry in this respect. It will look at upcoming legislation under the Green Deal with a specific link to existing and planned policy initiatives such as sustainable product policy, Construction Product Regulation, sustainable built environment, embedded carbon, energy use in buildings, New European Bauhaus.
This session will include a range of panellists from the EU institutions (European Commission and MEPs), expert architects and representatives in the field of sustainable construction, as well as a representative from the cement industry. So far, speakers for this session include:
- Florika Fink-Hooijer, Director General, DG ENV
- Pernille Weiss MEP
- Domenico Campogrande, Director General, European Construction Industry Federation
- Onne Van der Weijde, President Europe & Asia, CRH