Cement is the most ubiquitous construction material on Earth. It makes up our roads, bridges, dams, buildings, and more. We use 4.2 billion metric tons of it annually. But it comes at a high cost to our climate and communities: the “glue” that holds concrete together accounts for 7% of total global CO2 emissions.

The cement manufacturing process hasn’t changed in 200 years. Approximately 60% of cement manufacturing emissions come from breaking down limestone in super hot (2,400-2,650 °F) cement kilns; the other ~40% comes from burning fossil fuels — like coal, gas, oil, and waste — to heat the kilns. Burning coal emits air toxics, like NOx, and harms local communities. To get to net zero, though, we need to change what we’re burning and putting into kilns.

The global cement and concrete industries are both vast and complex. There are over 2,600 cement plants in more than 160 countries, and while 10 multinational companies dominate nearly half of the cement market, only 5% of the concrete market is controlled by the top 30 producers.

Continuing business as usual will lock in emissions for the next several decades, but creating the preconditions for innovation and demand for low-carbon cement will set us on a trajectory for net-zero emissions by 2050.

Low-carbon cement and concrete solutions exist today, but to rapidly expand their use, they require new policies, standards, and financing. “It is easy to fall into the trap of labeling the industry hard to abate because there is no silver bullet to decarbonising cement and concrete,” says the EU Alliance for Low-Carbon Cement and Concrete. “But a multitude of solutions do exist – and all of them have a part to play in reaching net zero.”

Reducing cement’s carbon footprint is possible today. Blended cements — already widely used around the world — lower carbon emissions by reducing the proportion of clinker in the mix. Additionally, cement manufacturers are implementing new technologies for replacing coal and pet coke with lower-emission fuels, and kiln electrification pilots are already underway. Industry roadmaps show how these levers add up to net zero: using less cement through smarter design and efficient construction methods, replacing clinker with low-carbon supplementary cementitious materials and exploring new chemistries, switching fuels and cleaning up the power that runs the kilns, and capturing the remaining CO2. No single lever can transform the sector, but together they put net zero emissions within reach. What is important is to act within this decade.

Demand for cement and concrete is set to increase by over 40% by 2050, with the majority coming from non-OECD nations. Plants being built now, particularly in the Global South, could operate until the late 2050s or early 2060s — well beyond the urgent imperative to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

The next 20 years are vital for meeting global emissions targets. As of 2024, over 40 of the world’s top cement producers have targeted net zero by 2050. To meet these goals, producers must start achieving an annual 3-4% decline in the emissions intensity of cement.

Why now

The next two decades will decide whether we achieve net-zero emissions for cement or lock in emissions for the next three to four decades. There are cost competitive solutions that already exist — what is missing is an enabling ecosystem of policies, standards, demand, and finance to achieve commercial scale. Because every new cement plant built in this decade can run through the 2060s, the choices we make today, particularly across the rapidly growing Global South, will decide the cement sector’s emissions trajectory.

Advocacy for the cement sector’s transformation is concentrated in the Global North, even though most future emissions will come from Global South. Industrious Labs works where the demand is growing. We combine rigorous data and analytics with policy advocacy and technical expertise, and we build locally led coalitions to turn a fragmented landscape into coordinated pressure for change.