Building materials group CRH is to invest €210 million in a project to cut carbon emissions from its cement plant in Ukraine. Ciarán Brennanreports.

The United Nations Joint Implementation Supervisory Committee (JISC) has registered CRH's project to convert its cement plant at Kamenets-Podilsky in western Ukraine from a wet to dry process.

CRH said it was the first joint implementation project to be registered by the committee and described the investment as a flagship project for the company in central and eastern Europe.

"It is an important milestone in the abatement of CO2 emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and demonstrates the importance of emission reductions to CRH and the participating countries, Ireland and Ukraine," it said.

Joint implementation projects are mechanisms provided by the Marrakesh/Kyoto agreements that may be used by countries which have accepted greenhouse gas emission reduction obligations to fulfil their Kyoto targets. Essentially, it allows CRH to count the cut in emissions in Ukraine towards meeting its targets in Ireland.

The joint implementation projects are only applicable in transitional economies and cannot be used to upgrade plants in developed economies such as Ireland, a CRH spokeswoman said. However, she said the company is commencing a €200 million investment project to modernise its Platin Cement Works near Drogheda, Co Louth.

Under the UN project in Ukraine, €140 million will be spent on replacing an existing wet process plant with a new, dry process cement plant.

It will have the potential to reduce emissions of CO2 in Ukraine by up to three million tonnes by 2012.

An additional €70 million will be invested to modernise the plant's existing cement milling capacity and infrastructure, CRH said, adding that the new plant would be the largest investment in the Ukrainian cement industry since independence in 1991.

The company will receive no funding from the UN under the programme

"This project is an important milestone in the abatement of emissions under the Kyoto Protocol and a clear sign of CRH's commitment to reducing specific CO2 emissions across its operations.

"It demonstrates CRH's commitment to meeting the needs of the Ukrainian economy in an environmentally friendly and operationally efficient manner," said CRH chief executive Liam O'Mahony.