All the levers will play a role in decarbonising our sector.

Last week we were approached by the FT's Sustainable Views https://www.sustainableviews.com/– who were writing a piece on decarbonising the cement industry. We were grateful to be asked to provide a quote.

The article (subscription required) by @Florence Jones | LinkedIn certainly got us thinking, indeed the premise of the story - ‘Why solving cement’s emissions problem means moving beyond carbon capture’ shows that misconceptions still pervade about the extent of activity today across our industry to rapidly reduce CO2 emissions, and the breadth of  innovation(s) that we and our members are driving across all our decarbonisation levers, as well as, I’m afraid, the continuing scepticism around carbon capture and storage. It is our responsibility in the industry and especially mine and the GCCA’s, on behalf of our essential and innovating industry, to challenge this with patience, with humility and, most crucially, with facts.

The importance of the role our materials play in building sustainable and resilient communities, as well as the infrastructure that our changing world will need, in the following years. is a given to most.  But even today, there are many who do not know that we are already committed and already in the action of delivering a more sustainable industry and urgently trying to work with governments, policymakers, built environment experts and other key players to accelerate our progress across all levers of our Net Zero Roadmap in this important ‘decade to deliver’.

If carbon capture is to play a role, and it absolutely must and will, it is in our interest as a sector to reduce as much as possible the amount of CO2 that will need to be captured and stored with other more cost-effective levers first. That is why, in these next years ahead, we are going all out to address the other levers that can today dramatically reduce CO2. Some of this is within our control on the manufacture side, but it is surprising to many outside our sector how much we will need others, such as designers and policymakers, to provide demand, certainty for low carbon products, and to set the standards and regulations that can make a decisive difference. For example, why is societal waste going to landfill or polluting rivers and seas when it can be safely treated and recycled in our kilns, while reducing the CO2 footprint of our plants as an CO2-reduced alternative to fossil fuels; why in some parts of the world are blended cements, that can reduce our CO2 footprint and are proved to be an effective alternative to traditional cement, not allowed to be used; why are building codes often oversubscribing the amounts of more CO2-intensive cement/concrete required, or not allowing recycled concrete to be used?  Partially, we know the answer - it is inertia and ‘we’ve always done things that way’, but the scale and urgency of the challenge means we need decisive action today, especially from our partners in the public realm to work with us to breakthrough.

The next misconception to address, is that ours is an industry not innovating, or worse is stifling or against innovation – this frustrates me possibly the most. Even if I don’t mention the myriad of innovation activity underway across our members (see our latest action and progress report) and mention only the innovation that we are collectively undertaking through our global innovation programmes, it is clear that we stand quite unique to many industries.

We, and our members, are wholly committed to driving technology and innovation across all decarbonisation levers. We run two world-class innovation programmes – a research network with 40+ renowned universities, more than 80PhDs on carbon reduction; and a global ‘open innovation challenge’ for start-ups, that in the last three  years has received hundreds of entries, made dozens of detailed assessments, and formed several formal consortia and mentoring programmes to trial and monitor these technologies at a wider scale. Why? It is because we know innovation will help us unlock our net zero future, it can expedite and potentially deliver at lower cost the transition we need to make, and we know that we need players from outside the industry to challenge us and create new ways of working.

However, and this is a critical point, an important assessment regarding technology is its ability to scale up in line with the sheer global requirement for vital infrastructure and buildings in the following decades. The reality on the ground is that construction techniques and material availability, will be big factors, especially in the global south where the majority of building needs are today and will increasingly be in the  next 25 years, . Whilst contributions will come from many areas, as custodian of the essential global material, we have to focus on those that can at scale make a meaningful impact, and before 2050

And so to carbon capture and storage, and we hope utilisation or use of the CO2 we capture. It is not only our industry where this will play a substantial role. It is seen as an important technology across many heavy industries and one that can genuinely enable mass industrial decarbonisation. The technology works and our industry is seeing an increasing number of pilots and real projects gather pace across the world. The first commercial scale cement plant, utilising carbon capture technology, and capturing large amounts of CO2, will be completed this year in Norway, followed closely by others in the USA, Canada and Europe. The challenge for our member companies is ensuring that the enabling policy framework is in place and that there is a fair playing field and market for low carbon, near zero carbon, and net zero carbon (cement and) concrete.

It is easy to be cynical from the outside or, conversely, frustrated on our side that people are cynical, but I take it as an opportunity for dialogue. We cannot make the transition alone and so robust discussion, exchange of ideas and a relentless focus on moving forward on the transition to deliver the great prize of net zero (cement and) concrete for the world, is key.