Concrete 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 concrete’s ubiquity comes at a high cost to our climate and communities. Cement, the “glue” that holds concrete together and its most carbon-intensive ingredient, accounts for 7% of total global CO2 emissions.

The cement manufacturing process hasn’t changed in 200 years. Sixty percent of cement manufacturing emissions come from breaking down limestone in super hot (2400-2650 °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 concrete and cement industries are both vast and complex. There are over 2,600 cement plants in 160+ countries, and while ten 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.

Demand for cement and concrete is set to increase by more than 33% 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 March 2024, 44 cement producers had targeted net zero by 2050. To meet these goals, producers must start achieving an annual 3-4% decline in the emissions intensity of cement.