Carbon pricing for low carbon technology diffusion: A survey analysis of China's cement industry

• This paper analyzes low carbon technology diffusion in cement industry of China.
• The dataset was collected from 78 companies by a questionnaire survey.
• The surveyed cement companies are still laggard in carbon management.
• Carbon pricing shows effect for the diffusion of specific low carbon technology.

This study estimates the effect of using carbon pricing to promote the diffusion of low carbon technologies based on data collected from 78 cement companies in China. The analysis confirms that they are familiar with major energy saving and low carbon technologies in the sector and have made efforts in energy saving, but are lagging in terms of carbon management. An average payback time of 3.3 years is confirmed as the threshold for cement companies to determine technology investment. The adoptions of target technologies in this survey are at different stages; WHR (waste heat recovery power generation) systems have been largely diffused and the effect of carbon pricing is highly marginal for further adoption. On the other hand, levying a moderate carbon price, i.e., 60 Yuan/t-CO2, may accelerate the diffusion of EMOS (energy management and optimisation systems), recently introduced in China's cement industry. This research goes some way to clarifying the diffusion of low carbon technologies and provides implications for climate countermeasures for the target sector in China.