Technology Roadmap Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry

3. The vision
Figure 3: Global cement demand intensity and population, and cement 
production intensity for selected regions
Note: Cement demand and production intensities displayed refer to the low-variability case.
Sources: Population data from UN DESA (2015), 
World Population Prospects: The 2015 Revision
, 
https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/
. Base year 
cement production data from van Oss, H. G. (2016), 
2014 Minerals Yearbook: Cement
, United States Geological Survey data release, 
https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/cement/myb1-2014-cemen.pdf
0
2 500
5 000
7 500
10 000
12 500
0
400
800
1 200
1 600
2 000
2014
2020
2025
2030
2035
2040
2045
2050
P
o
p
u
la
ti
o
n
(m
il
li
o
n
p
e
o
p
le
)
C
e
m
e
n
t
in
te
n
si
ty
(k
g
ce
m
e
n
t/
ca
p
it
a
)
Non-urban population
Urban population
World demand intensity
CHINA - production intensity
INDIA - production intensity
MIDDLE EAST -
production intensity
KEY MESSAGE: Global aggregated cement demand per capita is expected to remain stable towards 2050, 
while population is set to increase by about one-third over the same period.

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18
Technology Roadmap
Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry
The vision laid out in this Technology Roadmap for 
the global cement industry is consistent with the 
carbon emissions trajectory of the 2DS (Box 1). This 
vision sets a cost-effective technology pathway 
for the cement industry to decrease its global 
direct CO
2
emissions by 24% from current levels 
(2.2 GtCO
2
/yr) by 2050, or a reduction of 32% of the 
global direct CO
2
intensity of cement.
10
This effort is 
realised while meeting increasing cement demand 
to support the development and transition of 
10. Direct CO
2
intensity refers to gross direct CO
2
emissions, after 
carbon capture.
society to a 2DS world. The roadmap vision requires 
7.7 GtCO
2
cumulative direct carbon emissions 
savings compared to the RTS by 2050 from cement 
making. This is a decrease equivalent to almost 
90% of current total industrial direct CO
2
emissions 
globally. This would be implemented through 
improving energy efficiency, switching to fuels that 
are less carbon intensive (alternative fuels), reducing 
clinker content in cement and implementing 
innovative technologies such as carbon capture.