As COP29 enters its second week, a Global Project Tracker (GPT) mapping the pipeline of green industrial projects, with an assessment of their progress towards 2030 targets, has been launched by Mission Impossible Partnership and Industrial Transition Accelerator (ITA). The cement sector has set a target of 45 low-emission plants to be up and running by 2030, but the growing investment decision backlog is delaying implementation, according to this new tracker.
The GPT reports that only three full-scale carbon capture utilisation and storage (CCUS) projects for the cement sector with high capture rates above 90 per cent are currently under construction in Europe. These projects include Heidelberg Materials and SA Cimenteries' Anthemis project in Antoing, Belgium, Holcim’s Carbon2Business project in Lägerdorf, Germany, and the EQIUM (CRH) K6 project in Lumbres, France. The only additional financial investment decision (FID) project approved in 2024 is Heidelberg Materials' Lehigh Edmonton CCS project.
As the leading multinational in terms of cement production outside of China, Holcim is pushing to launch CCUS projects in multiple locations. It has seven large-scale CCUS projects that will deploy scalable, mature technologies and two of these, Carbon2Business and Go4Zero (Obourg, Belgium), broke ground in April and May 2024.
Heidelberg Materials is expected to announce the first successful operation of a CCUS project in the cement sector when it announces the start-up of its CCUS project at Brevik in Norway at the end of 2024.
Financial investment decision delays
The positive news is that 43 of 45 1.5°C-aligned plants have been identified with five new announcements in 2024 including the Carbon Clean Tamil Nadu project by Dalmia Cement (Bharat) Ltd, along with four other projects across Europe and Australia. There are 27 additional projects looking for FID in Europe that have been announced in the cement sector and nine in North America, five in Asia and two in Oceania.
It is estimated that a scale up of 15x will be needed to reach the FID approvals needed in the next 2-3 years to meet the cement industry's 2030 goals. The GPT estimates that there are some US$29bn of announced carbon capture projects in the cement sector that are currently held in the pipeline for FID.
Alternative cement technologies are securing funding with greater success. Materrup secured EUR26m in June 2024 for 10 low-carbon plants using clinker free MCC1® technology. Ecocem has expanded its ACT technology to The Netherlands, while calcined clay projects are gaining momentum as commercial-scale projects.
Supportive measures
US decarbonisation is being driven by public funding through the US Department of Energy which has allocated US$1.2bn for innovative solutions such as Brimstone and Sublime Systems, while private investment from companies such as Fortera (US$85m) is beginning to emerge.
Policy is underpinning investor confidence in Europe with the EU’s Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) revision and France’s Environmental Regulation (RE2020), which both introduced embodied carbon limits in the market, and have encouraged cement companies to invest in low-carbon projects.
GCCA optimistic that 2030 targets can be achieved
The Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) has indicated that 10 carbon capture plants will be operational by 2030 in its Roadmap to Zero. However, it is optimistic that the sector could even achieve triple that number by 2030.
While the GCCA’s 'Cement Industry Net Zero Progress 2024/25' report highlights that the industry has embraced decarbonisation, there are significant challenges ahead. “It’s important that we are in Baku at COP29, calling on all policymakers, governments and anyone with a stake in the built environment to urgently work with us on our net zero mission,” said Thomas Guillot, chief executive of GCCA.