Committee on Climate Change

Energy intensive sectors of industry (e.g. iron & steel, chemical industry) account for approximately a quarter of all UK greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.  By disaggregating industry emissions in 2008 we highlight the options for emissions reductions:

• The majority of direct emissions in industry are from the combustion of fuels (74 MtCO₂).
• A significant portion of this is used to generate heat (30 MtCO₂), including space heating (5MtCO₂) and low and high grade heat for industrial applications (25 MtCO₂). Typically low grade heat is used in non-energy intensive industries, raising the possibility, for example that these could switch to use of electricity or biomass. Energy intensive industries (such as iron and steel) typically require high grade heat, suggestion that switching to biomass, biogas and CCS may be the most promising options.
• The remainder of combustion (around 44 MtCO₂) which is comprised of a range of sectors including drying and separation (this includes drying materials using air/flow/ventilation rather than heat) and construction. We have not considered in detail the options for decarbonisation that may be available in these areas. 

• Process emission make up a further 14 MtCO₂, which arise from chemical reactions within industry (e.g. the calcination of limestone in the production of cement).
• Emissions from the use of electricity constitute around 52 MtCO₂ of emissions by 2030 mainly for running motors and electric heating. This is projected to reduce substantially in future to around 28 MtCO₂, primarily due to decarbonisation of the power sector. 
• In addition to the above, 37 MtCO₂ come from refineries and other energy supply, which are categorised separately from the rest of industry to highlight that these industries produce fuels for downstream conduction. These emissions could be reduced both through the optimisation of refineries and declining demand for fuels due to the decarbonisation of the economy (e.g. transport sector).   

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The Committee’s advice in these sectors:

• The CCC’s most recent analysis of industry is in Chapter 5 of the Fourth Budget report
• Chapter 3 of the CCC’s 2010 progress report.
• Chapter 5 of “Meeting carbon budgets – the need for a step change”
• Chapter 6 of the CCC’s first report “Building a low-carbon economy – the UK’s contribution to tackling climate change”