Emissions trading

The lime industry is one of the most important raw materials industries. Lime products are indispensable raw materials for numerous processes, especially in the iron and steel industry, environmental protection, the building trade, agriculture, the food processing industry and animal feed production, and almost impossible to substitute.

The lime industry is more strongly affected by emissions trading than any other affected industry because:

it emits approx. 1.2 tonnes of CO2 when producing 1 ton of lime,
its added value in relation to the CO2 emitted is lower than that of any other affected industry,
the technical potential for reduction has been fully exploited. For every tonne of lime, 785 kg of CO2 are chemically liberated. That proportion cannot be reduced further. One-third of the emissions produced are due to burning fossil fuels in the lime kilns. Kiln technology and fuel input have been optimised with thermal efficiency levels of more than 85% and can only be technically improved to a marginal extent with disproportionately large effort.

Under these conditions, the system of emissions trading either by investing in technical measures to reduce the emission of CO2 or by purchasing additional CO2 certificates cannot become effective for the lime industry.

The situation is unique. Even the rulings proposed in the draft version of NAP II for the period 2008 to 2012 do not contain any satisfactory solution for these special circumstances.

The markets served by the lime industry have recovered since 2006. New areas of use and the recovery of the building trade have already boosted production of lime in 2006 and will do so to an even greater extent in the coming years. In 2006, our members produced 6,785,000 tonnes of lime, almost 4% more than in the previous year. Further growth of around 6% is expected for 2007. The hardship clause provided for in NAP II for the small and medium-sized industries – and therefore also for the lime industry – only takes account of this situation to a limited extent. The calculated impact of the ruling provided to date for small and medium-sized industries shows that the total average output by our members for the years 2005 and 2006 is roughly the same as the average output for the years 2000 to 2004.

Further information on the subject of emissions trading is available from the Federal association of the German lime industry.