Technology Roadmap Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry

Assessing investments
The investment estimates discussed in this section 
are based on bottom-up technology modelling of 
the cement sector, including full plant capital costs 
for industrial process equipment installed during 
the time horizon of the vision to 2050. They do 
not consider any costs related to capacity already 
existing in the base year or incurred installation 
costs over the time horizon. Thus, no additional 
costs are allocated to energy savings from 
improved operation and maintenance practices. 
Also, site-specific potentials to reduce energy 
consumption or CO
2
emissions without a process 
change or major integration revamp are not 
captured in the discussed investment costs due to 
their dependency on local conditions. 

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5. Policy, finance and international collaboration: Actions and milestones
The cost impact of activities outside the plant 
fence is not included. There may be costs related 
to alternative fuel collection or handling, or 
transport and storage of CO
2
. Costs related to 
auxiliary equipment such as air separation units or 
ORCs, which may be required when implementing 
new units/processes, are not included in capital 
investment of carbon capture equipment. 
Additional commodities needed to operate some 
of the innovative technologies, such as oxygen, 
are considered in the least-cost optimisation as 
increased variable operating costs from importing 
such commodities.
Costs associated with switching to fuels that are less 
carbon intensive and reducing the clinker to cement 
ratio are related to the additional storage capacity 
on site required to handle additional solid fuels and 
cement constituents.
Lastly, investment costs related to R&D and pilot 
testing of novel technologies that are commercially 
deployed after 2030 are not included in these 
estimates.
International collaboration
International collaboration is essential to supporting 
the vision of this Technology Roadmap. The 
IEA works closely with the principal existing 
international initiatives that accelerate development 
and deployment of low-carbon technologies for 
the global cement industry. The CSI provides a 
framework for international co-operation among 
global cement companies to identify actions 
and accelerate progress towards sustainable 
development. The UNFCCC plays a specific role in 
putting in place the right processes for international 
co-operation and in setting the global reference 
frame. This ensures progressive deployment of the 
required level playing field to avoid asymmetric 
environmental policy strategies across different 
regions, which could lead to cement production 
shifting towards countries with less-restrictive 
carbon mitigation industrial policies.
Stakeholders should strengthen international 
co-operation, for example through the UNFCCC 
process, to gather reliable industry-level 
energy and emissions data, to support policy 
development, to track performance and to identify 
regional and national best practice benchmarks, 
for example through the CSI Getting the Numbers 
Right database.
The IEA Technology Collaboration Programmes 
provide a framework for stakeholders from both 
the public and private sectors to share knowledge 
and to pool resources to provide integrated, 
cost-effective solutions to common challenges. 
The IEA programme on Industrial Energy-Related 
Technologies and Systems provides an international 
research platform to accelerate research and 
technology development on industrial technologies 
and systems. The IEA programme on Greenhouse 
Gas R&D is an international collaborative research 
platform, including governmental and private 
actors, that evaluates technologies that can 
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels, 
including carbon capture.
The seven innovation challenges identified by 
Mission Innovation offer opportunities for enhanced 
collaborative efforts. The challenge on Carbon 
Capture aims to enable near-zero CO
2
emissions 
from power plants and carbon-intensive industries 
including cement production. The challenge on 
Clean Energy Materials aims to accelerate the 
exploration of new high-performance and low-
cost structural materials within a broader range of 
material applications.

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