Displaying items by tag: CO2

Emir Adigüzel warned that cement prices in Europe could triple under current decarbonisation policies. The director of the World Cement Association (WCA) made the comments at a conference in Germany this week. He noted that most of these carbon-related costs will be passed to consumers. His view is that carbon pricing will force price rises across the industry.

That cement prices will rise due to decarbonisation policies is not in itself news. This debate is really about how much and who pays. The WCA's latest analysis asserts that the cement sector will require investment of US$200bn by 2050 to fully decarbonise. Some progress has been achieved so far. Major cement companies reduced carbon intensity from an average of 700kg CO₂/t in 2019 to 640kg CO₂/t in 2023. Adigüzel’s argument is that carbon capture (CCUS) in the cement sector has its place only “if applied correctly.” His view is that these technologies will have a limited effect on global industry decarbonisation as the required investment per cement plant exceeds the capital cost of an entire cement plant. The WCA prefers to promote decarbonisation instead via energy efficiency, alternative fuels, reduced clinker factor and new technologies. That last one includes CCUS but is not limited to it also covering things such as electrification and heat storage. Note today’s news that India-based Adani Cement has ordered a RotoDynamic Heater from Coolbrook. Adigüzel also criticised the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) in incentivising non-scheme exporters to reduce their carbon footprint, particularly given the expensive investments required.

Decarbonisation is going to be expensive and CCUS is the priciest part of this. Hence, cement producers are likely to consider taking as many measures as possible before implementing CCUS. That cement companies would pass on these costs to consumers also seems likely. The other obvious outcome is that consumers will simply use less cement where possible. Yet Adigüzel doesn’t address how net zero can be achieved with continuing clinker production without using CCUS. His pricing for CCUS is at the right scale though. As Boston Consulting Group (BCG) pointed out in 2024, the cost of CCUS looks set to increase cement prices from US$90 – 130/t to at least US$160 – 240/t by 2050. As well as the capital costs to build a CCUS unit, this includes the additional energy costs required and the price of transporting the CO₂ to a sequestration site. The first two large-scale Heidelberg Materials CCUS projects in Europe, for example, both connect to government-backed transport and sequestration schemes. BCG went on to posit that decarbonisation trends would create five archetypes of cement plants: export hubs and larger plants close to CO₂ storage sites; former export sites far from storage; import grinding hubs; and stranded assets.

Finally, Carbon Brief reported this week that CO₂ emissions in China continued to stay flat in the third quarter of 2025, suggesting a stable or falling trend since early 2024. The adoption of electric vehicles and declines from cement and steel production contributed to the picture in the latest quarter. Emissions from the production of cement and other building materials fell by 7% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2025. This was attributed to the ongoing real-estate contraction. Note that this decarbonisation trend in China has been created by market trends.

Expect plenty more sustainability stories everywhere over the next few weeks as the 2025 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP30) started this week in Belém, Brazil. The GCCA will be present at a number of events including an update to the Brazil Cement Industry Roadmap on Saturday 15 November 2025

The Global FutureCem Conference on cement industry decarbonisation will take place on 21 - 22 January 2026 in Munich, Germany

Japan: The Renewable Energy Institute (REI) has published The Decarbonisation Pathway for Japan's Cement Industry, a report on strategies to ensure cement industry decarbonisation in line with a global 1.5°C climate change limit. The report found that the calcination of limestone gives rise to 60% of process CO₂ emissions from Japanese cement production. The report reviews possibilities for tackling emissions both from calcination and from other sources. In the former category, it noted scope for clinker factor reduction. Japan Cement Association members recorded an average clinker factor of 0.8 and Scope 1 emissions of 680kg/t of cementitious product in 2024. REI contrasted this with India-based Dalmia Bharat, which had a clinker factor of 0.6 and Scope 1 emissions of 467kg/t.

Asia: South East Asia's regional cement association, the ASEAN Federation of Cement Manufacturers (AFCM), has launched its AFCM 2035 Roadmap at its 46th Council Meeting at the Rizqun International Hotel in Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei Darussalam. Under the roadmap, AFCM members will achieve a cumulative 38Mt reduction in CO₂ emissions by 2035. Efforts will unfold under four priority areas: promoting low-carbon cement, advancing the energy transition, maximising supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs) and adopting deep decarbonisation technologies. The council meeting served the members to help align their strategies, including through the proposed establishment of a unified emissions reporting system.

India: The government has notified the Greenhouse Gases Emission Intensity Target Rules, 2025, establishing legally binding reduction targets for 282 industrial units in cement and other heavy industries. The notification was issued by the Ministry of Environment on 8 October 2025 after considering all suggestions and objections received on the draft rules, which were published on 16 April 2025. Facilities must reduce greenhouse gas emissions per tonne of output from 2023–24 baseline levels during the 2025–26 to 2026–27 compliance period.

The rules implement the Energy Conservation (Amendment) Act, 2022, which supports the creation of a domestic carbon market. Plants emitting below the target will earn tradable credits; those exceeding limits must buy credits or pay a penalty equal to twice the average credit price. The average price will be determined by the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE). The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) will impose and oversee recovery of penalties, which must be paid within 90 days. Major cement producers including UltraTech, Dalmia, JK Cement, Shree Cement and ACC are included, with reduction targets of up to 3.4% over two years. The framework supports India’s Paris Agreement commitments and prepares exporters for mechanisms such as the EU Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.

Saudi Arabia: Northern Region Cement Company (NRCC) has announced the signing of a contract for the construction of a US$8.7m, 20MW solar power plant in Turaif City. The plant will be supplied by Sinoma Overseas Development. The company says that the contract is in line with Saudi Vision 2030 and the company’s strategy to increase the use of renewable energy. Construction will take place over 10 months, with operations expected to begin in late 2026.

Sinoma Overseas Development will carry out the full scope of engineering design, procurement, supply and delivery during the contract duration time, in addition to civil construction, installation and commissioning.

Norway: TotalEnergies, Equinor and Shell have announced that the first CO₂ volumes were transported by ship from Heidelberg Materials’ Brevik cement plant to Northern Lights’ Øygarden facilities. They were then injected 2600m under the seabed, 100km off the coast of western Norway. Phase one of the project has a storage capacity of 1.5Mt/yr. A second phase, approved in March 2025, will expand capacity to more than 5Mt/yr from 2028.

TotalEnergies’ senior vice president of carbon neutrality Arnaud Le Foll said “With the start of operations of Northern Lights, we are entering a new phase for the CCS industry in Europe. This industry now moves to reality, offering hard-to-abate sectors a credible and tangible way to reduce CO₂ emissions.”

US: A research team led by the University of Michigan’s Charles McCrory, in collaboration with the University of California, Davis (UCD) and the University of California, Los Angeles, has developed a process to capture CO₂ and convert it into metal oxalates for use in cement production. The method uses electrodes to transform carbon dioxide into oxalate, which binds with metal ions and precipitates as a solid suitable for alternative cement. The researchers reduced the required lead catalyst to parts per billion by modifying the polymer environment around the catalyst, mitigating environmental risks. The researchers next want to focus on scaling up the process and are working on electrolysis on a large scale.

UCD associate professor Jesús Velázquez said “Metal oxalates represent an underexplored frontier – serving as alternative cementitious materials, synthesis precursors and even carbon dioxide storage solutions.”

US: Ozinga has broken ground on a 1Mt/yr alternative cement grinding plant in East Chicago, Indiana. The plant is equipped with a Gebr. Pfeiffer MVR5300-C6 vertical roller mill. It will produce ASTM C989-compliant slag cement and other blended cements. When operational in 2026, it will be the largest of its kind in North America, and avoid 700,000t/yr of CO₂ emissions from conventional cement production. Its location offers strategic rail, road and shipping access to large markets in the US and Canada.

East Chicago Mayor Anthony Copeland welcomed an anticipated 150 new jobs resulting from construction and subsequent operations at the plant.

India: During the fourth quarter of the 2025 financial year (which ended on 31 March 2025), premium products constituted 16% of Shree Cement’s sales mix, up from 12% one year previously. During the period, the company further diversified its offering with the launch of two new premium cements, Bangur Marble Portland slag cement and Extra White Portland slag cement, in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal. Both products are designed for maximum brightness and smoothness within their category of CEM-II Portland slag cements. The company says that its growing portfolio helped it to increase its full-year financial realisation per tonne by 5% year-on-year.

Business Today News has reported that managing director Neeraj Akhoury said "In the 2025 financial year, 74% of our cement output was blended, avoiding over 7.2Mt of CO₂ emissions."

Shree Cement crossed 60% consumption of energy from renewable sources in May 2025, Construction World News has reported. It has 582MW of installed renewable power capacity and is currently in the process of building a 1MW battery storage system at one of its cement plants in India.

Australia: Minister for Climate Change and Minister Chris Bowen says that the government is ‘considering’ the enactment of a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) to prevent carbon leakage from high emissions-intensity products, including cement.

The Australian Parliament committed to 43% national CO₂ emissions reduction between 2005 and 2030 in 2022, and capped emitters’ individual carbon footprints in 2023. Final advice from a government Carbon Leakage Review was due after May 2025, and was possibly complicated by on-going US climate and trade reforms under President Trump. The Australian Cement Industry Federation bemoaned a lack of action on carbon leakage in March 2025. It warned of jeopardy to both decarbonisation and 1400 jobs in the Australian cement sector.

Australia’s construction industry imported 40% of its cement used in 2024.