AN ASSESSMENT OF CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION STRATEGIES OF THE INDIAN CEMENT INDUSTRY

Abstract

Cement is a fundamental requirement of modern society and the concrete, a cement-based product is the highest manufactured and second highest consumed product after water on earth, but across the world, the production of cement is the most energy and emission intensive industry. Globally, India is the second largest cement producer as well as the consumer. Presently, the cement industry of India is the third largest energy consumer and second largest greenhouse gases (GHGs) emitter. Continuous greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are responsible for global warming and extreme climate change. Thus, the cement industry is currently under pressure to reduce GHG emissions (GHGEs). However, reducing the GHGEs of the cement industry especially for developing country like India is not an easy task. Cement manufacturing industry needs to focus on significant climate change mitigation strategies to reduce the GHGEs to sustain its production. Implementation of Climate change mitigation strategies in the industry leads to a reduction in emissions of GHGs, climate risks, pollutants and another negative impact on the environment. Thus, in order to implement climate change mitigation strategies in the cement industry, a careful analysis of barriers that hinder the emission reduction must be taken. However, most existing research on the barriers to mitigation measures is focused on developed countries. Among the most important emerging economies, India, the second largest producer and consumer of cement faces challenges to implement emission reduction measures. To bridge this gap, this research identifies and evaluates the barriers and solutions to overcome these barriers in the context of India. This objective of research employs a three-phase methodology based on fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and fuzzy technique for order performance by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) to identify barriers and solutions to overcome these barriers to climate change mitigation strategies adoption in Indian cement industry. Fuzzy AHP is employed to prioritize these barriers, and to rank solutions of these barriers, Fuzzy TOPSIS is employed. Ten Indian cement manufacturing industry is taken to illustrate the proposed threephase methodology. Finally, the result of the analysis offers an effective decision support tool to the Indian cement industry to eliminate and overcome barriers to mitigation strategies adoption and build a green image in the market of the Indian cement industry. Our Next objective of the research is to evaluate the drivers to climate change mitigation strategies of the Indian cement industry. In the present study, a model is projected by applying the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Interpretive structural modeling (ISM) techniques iv to assess the drivers to climate change mitigation strategies of the cement industry. The AHP technique help in establishing the priorities of the drivers to climate change mitigation strategies, while ISM technique forms the relationships among them. Our final objective of the research is to identify and evaluate significant climate change mitigation strategies of the cement manufacturing industry in the context of India. Extant literature review and expert opinion are used to identify climate change mitigation strategies of the cement manufacturing industry. In this objective, model projects by applying both AHP and DEMATEL techniques to assess the climate change mitigation strategies of the cement industry. The AHP technique helps in establishing the priorities of climate change mitigation strategies, while the DEMATEL technique forms the causal relationships among them. Present model will help supply chain analysts to develop both short-term and long-term decisive measures for effectively managing and reducing GHGEs.