水泥行業(yè)是全球經(jīng)濟(jì)中碳污染最嚴(yán)重的行業(yè)之一

On a scorching July morning at a testing facility outside of Paris, a cadre of scientists, engineers, and architects wearing hard hats and safety goggles watched through protective glass as a machine molded a soupy, grey mixture into batches of brick-size blocks.

在7月里的一個(gè)炎熱的上午，在巴黎郊外的一個(gè)測試中心里，一群科學(xué)家、工程師和建筑師戴著安全帽和護(hù)目鏡，透過防護(hù)玻璃觀看一臺機(jī)器將一種粘稠的灰色混合物制成一塊塊磚大小的立方體。

Further along the line, a forklift operator carefully loaded the blocks into a curing chamber like loaves of bread in a bakery.

沿著這條生產(chǎn)線往前走，一名叉車司機(jī)小心翼翼地把這些塊狀物裝進(jìn)混凝土養(yǎng)護(hù)室，就像面包店里的面包一樣。

What they were witnessing was a trial run of a new concrete-making process developed by Solidia Technologies, one that the New Jersey-based company hopes will dramatically reshape the way this building material is made.

他們見證了Solidia Technologies(固化技術(shù)公司)開發(fā)的一種新型混凝土制造工藝的試運(yùn)行。總部位于新澤西的這家公司希望這種工藝能極大地改變這種建筑材料的制造方式。

By tweaking the chemistry of one of concrete’s essential ingredients—cement—and altering its curing process, the company says it can make concrete cheaper than the traditional process, while at the same time drastically cutting the carbon emissions associated with cement production.

該公司表示，通過調(diào)整水泥(混凝土的基本成分之一)的化學(xué)組成和性質(zhì)，并改變其養(yǎng)護(hù)過程，可以制造出比傳統(tǒng)工藝更便宜的混凝土，同時(shí)大幅減少與水泥生產(chǎn)相關(guān)的碳排放。

Cement is one of the global economy’s most carbon-polluting industries. Responsible for about 8% of global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in 2015, if it were ranked with individual countries, the cement industry would be the third-largest greenhouse-gas emitter in the world behind only China and the United States.

水泥行業(yè)是全球經(jīng)濟(jì)中碳污染最嚴(yán)重的行業(yè)之一。2015年水泥行業(yè)的二氧化碳排放量約占全球總排放量的8%，如果視水泥行業(yè)為一個(gè)國家，并與單個(gè)國家進(jìn)行排名，它可能會成為世界第三大溫室氣體排放國，僅次于中國和美國。

And this already outsized footprint is only projected to grow in the coming decades as economic development and rapid urbanization continue across Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. According to the International Energy Agency and the Cement Sustainability Initiative, by 2050, cement production could increase by as much as 23%.

隨著東南亞和撒哈拉沙漠以南的非洲地區(qū)的經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展和快速的城市化進(jìn)程，預(yù)計(jì)未來幾十年內(nèi)，這種已經(jīng)超標(biāo)的碳足跡只會進(jìn)一步擴(kuò)大。根據(jù)國際能源署和水泥可持續(xù)發(fā)展倡議的預(yù)測，到2050年，水泥產(chǎn)量可能會增加23%。

This poses a significant challenge for combating climate change. One 2018 study estimated that cement-related emissions will have to fall by at least 16% by 2030, and by far more after that, if nations are to meet the 2015 Paris Climate Accord target of staying below two degrees Celsius of warming this century.

對于應(yīng)對氣候變化，這是極大的挑戰(zhàn)。2018年的一項(xiàng)研究指出，如果各國要實(shí)現(xiàn)2015年《巴黎氣候協(xié)定》設(shè)定的“本世紀(jì)全球升溫不超過2攝氏度”的目標(biāo)，那么到2030年，與水泥相關(guān)的碳排放必須至少降低16%，而且之后的碳排放量還需要更低。

According to industry experts, reductions on that scale will require the widespread adoption of less carbon-intensive cement alternatives now under development in labs around the world. But in a market ruled by a handful of major producers wary of making changes to their existing business models, an absence of strong policies incentivizing greener technologies, and a construction industry reasonably cautious about novel building materials, the prospects for such a radical shift are far from certain.

行業(yè)專家表示，要實(shí)現(xiàn)如此大規(guī)模的減排，就必須廣泛采用碳排放較低的水泥替代品。目前，世界各地的實(shí)驗(yàn)室都在研發(fā)這種替代品。但在這樣一個(gè)由幾家主要生產(chǎn)商主導(dǎo)的市場上，生產(chǎn)商對改變現(xiàn)有的商業(yè)模式持謹(jǐn)慎態(tài)度，而且目前缺乏強(qiáng)有力的政策來推動綠色技術(shù)的發(fā)展，而建筑行業(yè)對新型建筑材料的態(tài)度也相當(dāng)謹(jǐn)慎，因此，這種根本性轉(zhuǎn)變的前景仍具有很大的不確定。