Cement sector Scopes 1 and 2 around 5-8% of global CO2 emissions
Sources: Scope 1 emissions from Rhodium Group ClimateDeck (September 2024); Scope 2 cement emissions estimated assuming indirect emissions from electricity are 10% of total emissions, IEA (2023); * 2024 emissions based on projections. Credit: Theo Moers, Hoshi Ogawa, Sho Tatsuno, Jessica Cong, Hyae Ryung Kim, and Gernot Wagner (27 September 2024); share/adapt with attribution. Contact: [email protected]
Key Insights
Global carbon emissions from cement production have more than doubled since 2000, and they’re set to continue tracking their steady upward trend — unless cement - industry executives, entrepreneurs, and experts can agree on strategies to reduce them. Fortunately, that’s something many industry leaders are tackling now.
There’s a broad consensus, even outside the cement industry, that simply cutting back on production of cement—and its main derivative, concrete—is not an option. After all, demand for cement remains especially strong in developing countries where urbanization and infrastructure-building are on the rise. In many ways, the trend is a good thing:In both developing and more mature economies, GDP typically tracks linearly with the production of cement and concrete, according to a 2018 UN report.