British Glass has launched its decarbonisation roadmap to 2050: a clear future. This is in response to the European Commission roadmap which established the intention to reduce CO2 emissions by 80% by 2050.
The aim of the glass roadmap is to create a low-carbon glass sector which is also competitive and prosperous. The glass industry has prepared its sector specific roadmap after a comprehensive consultation and workshop programme with British Glass member companies and other stakeholders. The roadmap sets out options to decarbonisation, identifies barriers to implementation and suggests solutions in the recommendations.
The roadmap identifies three trajectories which achieve different levels of carbon reduction and require different levels of action to accomplish. The summary document aims to display the information in an easy to digest way whilst the full report assesses each option in more detail.
The three key findings and recommendations of the report are:
1. Decarbonisation must be sustainable
2. Glass is a solution for a low-carbon economy
3. Positive collaboration (between industry, policy makers, consultants, academics and other stakeholders) is key to finding powerful and practical solutions.
This report coincides with the beginning of a UK Government project to map out the long term actions required to decarbonise eight different energy intensive industries between now and 2050, including the glass sector. This project is being led by DECC and BIS with collaboration between industry and lead academics and carried out by an independent consultant.
Jenni Staves, environmental manager at British Glass, commented:
“It is often the CO² footprint of glass manufacturing that is scrutinised but the positives of products that the industry creates - windows which save energy, solar panels and fibre glass wind turbines, for example – are overlooked. Instead of penalising the manufacturing process, we should be incentivising the production of products using this 100% recyclable material.
“The glass sector is looking forward to engagement on this and to opening up the debate. We aim to contribute to the discussion on the future policies of the European Commission and member states as we believe that this project marks the start of a very real journey to decarbonisation for the UK’s manufacturing sector.”
To read the summary or full report, visit: www.britglass.org.uk/decarbonisation-roadmap
