Technology Roadmap Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry

Technology Roadmap
Low-Carbon Transition in the Cement Industry
Mobilising financial support
There is an urgent need to mobilise public-private 
investment to support the sustainable transition 
of the cement industry. Robust carbon pricing 
can be one of the key elements in low-carbon 
transition of society, but governments worldwide 
struggle with implementation or with ensuring 
a stable price level. Traditional financing criteria 
used by industry are not appropriate for carbon 
mitigation technologies unless a global carbon 
price (or incentive) is sufficiently high and regionally 
symmetric to adequately value the cost of reducing 
CO
2
emissions. 
Governments should pursue investment risk-
mitigating mechanisms that are results oriented and 
unlock private finance in areas with low likelihood 
of independent private investment. In the past, 
funding of CCS demonstration projects has had 
a primary focus on power generation projects, 
but those should be expanded to target industrial 
applications including the cement sector. These 
mechanisms could reduce the risk associated 
with initial capital investment. They could also 
help investors to maintain a better cash flow by 
unlocking shares of total allocated financial support 
upon completion of predefined milestones through 
the development or demonstration processes.
International foundations can also play an 
important role in supporting technology 
implementation and demonstration projects that 
contribute to the sustainable transition of cement 
KEY MESSAGE: The bulk of the 2DS global cumulative additional investments occurs after 2030. 
Figure 18: Global cumulative additional investments in the roadmap vision (2DS) 
compared to the RTS, based on the low-variability case by 2050
Note: Additional investment numbers are assessed considering low- and high-bound sensitivity ranges for specific investment costs.
0
40
80
120
160
200
240
280
2020
2025
2030
2035
2040
2045
2050
U
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Low-cost bound
High-cost bound
manufacturing, especially in developing countries. 
The Green Climate Fund, which is accountable 
to the United Nations, mobilised pledges for 
USD 10.3 billion in 2014 from governments to 
finance the pressing mitigation and adaptation 
needs in developing economies and to unlock 
private investment (GCF, 2017). The Mission 
Innovation initiative was announced in 2015, with 
22 participating countries and the European Union 
seeking to double investments in clean energy R&D 
over five years to 2021. The initiative has focused 
on seven innovation challenges, which include 
carbon capture and clean energy materials (Mission 
Innovation, 2015).