The European Climate Foundation releases CO2 emissions report

There is a significant saving potential of up to 80 per cent of CO₂ emissions in the cement sector by making use of efficiency measures along the whole value chain, without carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies. These CO₂ savings could be achieved for a relatively-low financial cost and even with financial savings in some cases. If combining this with CCS, a-close-to carbon-neutral cement and concrete sector is feasible by 2050.
 
This is the main finding of “A sustainable future for the European cement and concrete industry”, a new report by the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL), and commissioned by the European Climate Foundation. It shows that carbon neutrality is a not an easy undertaking in the cement and concrete sector in Europe but is technologically feasible and can be achieved with the support of adequate investments. This will put the sector on track with the Paris Agreement (which creates an imperative for all sectors to keep global average temperature increase to 1.5°C) and with the path undertaken by the other sectors towards the full decarbonisation of the European economy.
 
The report takes a novel approach by assessing the CO₂ saving potential of a whole range of optimisation technologies including circular economy measures such as recycling cement fines, concrete recycling, structure optimisation in buildings, identifying different stages of the value chain and the corresponding CO₂ saving potential, focussing on actions that concrete producers, gravel producers, engineering offices, construction companies or demolition companies can make to make a transformational change in the sector.

However, the report underlines the importance of different actors in the construction value chain to work together and the need to get in place incentives targeting all stakeholders in the construction industry.