Stop the climate killer lignite
Swiss cement plants burn more than 110,000 tons of lignite every year. Lignite is the dirtiest and most climate-damaging fuel imaginable. Doctors for Environmental Protection (AefU) and Pingwin Planet (PP) are calling for a ban on lignite.
Cement factories account for around seven percent of the total Swiss Carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. They are thus among the biggest climate polluters in Switzerland. There seems to be little will to change this: as recently as 2014, the cement plants switched for the most part from dirty hard coal to the even dirtier and extremely CO2-intensive lignite. Since then, they have emitted around 8500 tons more CO2. "Lignite? The cement companies seem to virtually shun climate change," notes Lorenz Hirni, co-president of Pingwin Planet (PP). "This has to change immediately!" adds Peter Kälin, MD, President of Doctors for Environmental Protection (AefU). In addition to the more than 110,000 tons of lignite, the cement industry also burned 2,700 tons of hard coal and 18,000 tons of petroleum coke in its kilns in 2017.
Climate destruction as a trade secret?
Which of the six cement plants of Holcim, Jura Cement and Vigier burns the most lignite and hard coal? The cement industry association (Zemsuisse) has not answered this question. Neither did the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN): the coal consumption of the cement plants is confidential, non-public data. But climate and environmental destruction must not be a trade secret! AefU and PP call on the FOEN to disclose the coal consumption per cement plant. We have the right to know which is the dirtiest cement plant in the country. Replacing the three climate killers lignite, hard coal and petroleum coke with natural gas would reduce CO2 emissions from cement plants by 40%. Emissions of nitrogen oxides, heavy dioxide and dust, for example, would also be reduced in the process. However, a changeover only makes sense if it is possible in the short term and with relatively low investment (see OEKOSKOP 2/19).
More cancer from the cement plant chimney?
With the current revision of the Waste Ordinance, the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN) wants to massively relax the limit value for the carcinogenic substance benz(a)pyrene. Cement plants should now Waste burn containing up to 10 mg/kg of it, previously 3 mg/kg is allowed.
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