The UK government has commissioned the trade body representing the concrete industry to determine the amount of atmospheric carbon dioxide captured in concrete buildings and infrastructure in a move critics have described as "like the fox guarding the henhouse."
The project, announced last month, will determine how much CO2 is reabsorbed into concrete and the impact this has on the UK's overall carbon emissions.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) has awarded a tender for the work to the Mineral Products Association (MPA), a body that represents manufacturers of materials including concrete, cement and asphalt.
"The project will create a methodology that will inform the UK?s greenhouse gas inventory and the UK?s national and international reporting obligations on climate change," said the MPA. Top image: the concrete House N-DP in Belgium. The photography is by Filip Dujardin. Above: professor Michael Ramage called the project a "red herring"
The news was greeted with concern by some observers with professor Michael Ramage, director of the Centre for Natural Material Innovation at Cambridge University, describing the project as a "red herring".
"We?re concerned about the MPA modelling the carbonation of concrete for BEIS as they are not an independent body," said Ramage. "It is like the fox guarding the henhouse."
"If the UK are to produce a robust model it must be subject to ful...