Decarbonizing the cement industry

The cement industry alone accounts for 1 / 8th of French industry’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Cement comes from a historic process, whichgenerates process emissions that are difficult to avoid (around 2/3 of emissions) and consumes fossil fuels. Necessary for the construction of buildings and for public works by its integration in concrete, it is produced locally and represents 5,000 direct jobs and around 20,000 indirect jobs throughout the territory.

Today, the cement industry must invest both in R&D and in mature solutions to continue its decarbonization.

These solutions include, for example, the acceleration of the use of alternative energy sources to coke and coal (biomass, chemical waste, solid recovered fuels), the evolution of cement formulas to favor raw materials with a low carbon footprint, renovation of the cement plant, or even the design of new technologies for capturing and sequestering GHG emissions.

The cement sector is the first sector experimenting the Sectoral Transition Plan methodology. Works started in 2019, with a publication targeted at the beginning of 2021. The French cement manufacturers and their federation (SFIC) are involved alongside ADEME in the development of the technological roadmap.

Find the PTS Cement Memo in the Publications.

Find out more about Sectorial Transition Plans.