Partnering For Progress

The buildings and construction sector faces a crucial challenge in reducing its carbon emissions, and despite advancements, the current pace of change is still too slow. Accounting for 37% of global emissions, the sector is at a crossroads. The EU's latest 'Copernicus Climate Change Service' report confirmed 2024 as the warmest on record and the first year ever to exceed the 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels in the annual average temperature, reinforcing the urgency with which emissions reduction must be accelerated. Cement is one of the largest contributors to the construction industry’s emissions – accounting for almost 8% of global CO₂ alone. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), there needs to be an annual 3% reduction in the industry’s emissions, if the industry is to align with the net zero scenario.

While there is widespread investment in innovation – including research into alternative materials and processes – many of the proposed solutions to get the industry to net zero, including carbon capture, utilisation, and storage (CCUS), mean increased production costs. And despite some clear advancements, such as the electrification of heating processes during the manufacture of cement, the industry is not yet fully addressing the core carbon issue: clinker. Clinker is the primary reactive ingredient in cement and is responsible for approximately two-thirds of its carbon emissions – primarily due to the calcination process, when limestone is burned to produce clinker and releases CO₂.

The reality is simple: unless CO₂ production is avoided, which can only be done by dramatically reducing the amount of clinker in cement and concrete production, net zero will remain a distant dream.

Accelerating the adoption of low-carbon solutions

To reduce clinker volumes, the industry must embrace new thinking and approaches. The cement sector is – quite rightly – highly regulated to ensure the safety of any construction in which cement and concrete are used. However, the industry is a conservative one, slow to adopt new technologies and reliant on traditional practices. Adopting the widest possible range of viable, emerging technologies as fast as possible is essential to tackle the emissions crisis.

Cement and concrete technologies have advanced significantly in recent years, making it possible to use half the amount of cement in concrete compared with historical levels, while still maintaining essential performance metrics in the concrete it is used to make, namely workability, strength, and durability. Halving the amount of cement produced means halving the CO2 associated with cement production. The industry’s footprint can be reduced even further, up to 70%, by maximising the use of locally available alternative materials, known as supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). The more SCMs incorporated, the greater the positive impact will be.

Low-carbon cement is not new. What is new is the ability to scale these cements using a variety of readily available SCMs. Industry reluctance toengage with these solutions has been rooted in the belief that there are not sufficient volumes of these SCMs available to make a real impact. This is no longer the case.

Low-carbon cement production without a substantial green premium

Encouragingly, technologies which tackle the volume of clinker in cement without the need for huge additional cost are becoming more widely used. One such example is ACT from Ecocem, which works at a cost of around at around €10 – €18 per t of CO₂ avoided, compared to €175 for CCS.

One of ACT’s key advantages is its ability to be manufactured in existing cement plants without requiring significant additional capital investment. This 'drop-in' solution makes it both cost-effective and scalable, offering a low-barrier entry for cement producers aiming to reduce their carbon footprint.

ACT has been validated by a number of partners, including Cemex France, which has been testing and using ACT at several of its ready-mix plants. Furthermore, ACT has already been successfully poured at pilot sites in France, Belgium, and the UK. ACT gained the ETA certification in Brussels in February 2024 and is on target to obtain further national accreditations during the course of 2025 and beyond. It is supported by the backing of key national and regional policymakers, with financial grants received from the French Government (France 2030), the Région Hauts-de-France and the Communauté Urbaine de Dunkerque (Dunkirk territory).

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Read the article online at: https://www.worldcement.com/special-reports/17032025/partnering-for-progress/