7.1.1 Status of the sector

This chapter focuses on the mitigation of GHGs from energy-intensive industries: iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, chemicals (including fertilisers), petroleum refining, minerals (cement, lime, glass and ceramics) and pulp and paper, which account for most of the sector’s energy consumption in most countries (Dasgupta and Roy, 2000; IEA, 2003a,b; Sinton and Fridley, 2000). The food processing industry is also important because it represents a large share of industrial energy consumption in many non-industrialized countries. Each of these industries is discussed in detail in Section 7.4.

Globally, large enterprises dominate these industries. However, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are important in developing nations. For example, in India, SMEs have significant shares in the metals, chemicals, food and pulp and paper industries (GOI, 2005). There are 39.8 million SMEs in China, accounting for 99% of the country’s enterprises, 50% of asset value, 60% of turnover, 60% of exports and 75% of employment (APEC, 2002). While regulations are moving large industrial enterprises towards the use of environmentally sound technology, SMEs may not have the economic or technical capacity to install the necessary control equipment (Chaudhuri and Gupta, 2003; Gupta, 2002) or are slower to innovate (Swamidass, 2003). These SME limitations create special challenges for efforts to mitigate GHG emissions. However, innovative R&D for SMEs is also taking place for this sector (See Section 7.7).