GCCA: Cement and Concrete Industry Scales Up Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) Efforts to Accelerate Decarbonisation

The Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS (CEM CCUS) and the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) have today, at the first-ever Global Clean Energy Action Forum (GCEAF), announced an agreement that will help scale up the deployment of carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS) throughout the cement and concrete industry, in a move to stimulate innovation, investment and increase the pace of decarbonisation efforts.

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Central to the agreement will be exploring incentives, policy frameworks and finance solutions at a global level that can enable industrial-scale CCUS projects over the next ten years. The two organisations will work together to ensure the long-term deployment of CCUS, beyond 2030, via both policy and technological development.

The agreement sets out the role CCUS can have in safely and effectively delivering a net zero future and facilitates the identification and mapping of potential cement-sector CCUS projects. It will explore the transport and storage infrastructure needs involved in integrating cement CCUS projects into strategic CCUS transport and storage hubs. It will also help to foster project partnerships and lead to acceleration of projects in developing economies.

Thomas Guillot, CEO of the Global Cement and Concrete Association, said: “Cement is the vital ingredient in concrete, the world’s most-used human-made material. It is the backbone of the modern world. The industry is striving to innovate at every stage of the concrete life cycle. We see carbon capture as a vital lever for the global cement industry to achieve its ambitious goal of net-zero concrete by 2050.

“We are starting to see the first CCUS projects already emerge. We have mapped 35 projects announced and underway across the world and up to 100 additional projects are also in the pipeline among our member companies who operate all around the globe.”

Mr Guillot added: “This is good progress, but we cannot achieve our decarbonisation mission alone. CCUS is a key enabling technology, and it is a critical area for collaboration to ensure that government policy, enabling infrastructure and wider investment is in place. That is why the partnership with the Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS Initiative is so important, to help unlock and accelerate further progress and deployment.”

Henriette Nesheim, Assistant Director General, Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy – and CEM CCUS Initiative Co-Lead from Norway, said: “This is a great opportunity to work together with a vitally important industry. In Norway we are already building our first cement-CCS project in Brevik, and we look forward to sharing the experience with others.”

Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, US Department of Energy, said: “Reaching our ambitious climate goals requires the decarbonization of various heavy industries, including cement production. In the United States, through the support of Congress, we are currently funding projects to develop carbon capture technologies in cement and other key industrial sectors that are essential to modern life, with the aim of helping to achieve net-zero emissions economywide by 2050 and retaining and creating high-wage industrial jobs. The U.S. Government is keen to drive progress in this area, together with our partners in the CEM CCUS Initiative and the Global Cement and Concrete Association.”

To reach these objectives, both parties have agreed to the organisation of expert workshops, inclusive of CEM CCUS and GCCA members, as well as relevant stakeholders and partners including the CEM Industry Deep Decarbonisation Initiative (IDDI). Both parties will also produce joint reports and organise public events outlining progress in opportunities to implement CCUS projects at strategic hubs.

The agreement was announced at a GCCA and CEM CCUS led event at the Global Energy Action Forum, focused on the challenge and opportunity for CCUS as a major decarbonisation lever for the global cement and concrete sector. This aligns with a core pillar of the GCCA’s 2050 Net Zero Roadmap, launched last year, in which its members have committed to the deployment of at least ten industrial-scale CCUS projects by 2030.

At the event, the industry summarised the key challenges in accelerating the deployment of CCUS and outlined the enabling factors crucial to increasing its rollout to create a greener concrete future. These factors include supporting policies and financing, public procurement progress and CO₂ infrastructure and storage options alongside strategic hubs.

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Notes to editors:

Speakers at the GCCA and CEM CCUS led event at the Global Energy Action Forum included:

• Henriette Nesheim, Assistant Director General, Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy – and CEM CCUS Initiative Co-Lead from Norway
• Dan Dorner, Head of CEM Secretariat
• Thomas Guillot, CEO, Global Cement and Concrete Association

Panel:

• Chris Ward, CEO, Lehigh Hanson Cement
• Bjorn Otto Sverdrup, ExCom Chair, OGCI
• Tareq Emtairah, Director, UNIDO
• Brad Crabtree, Assistant Secretary, Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, US Department of Energy
• Khalid Abuleif, Chief Climate Negotiator, Saudi Arabia
• Moderator: Juho Lipponen, CEM CCUS

About the GCCA

Launched in January 2018, the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA) is dedicated to developing and strengthening the sector’s contribution to sustainable construction. The GCCA aims to foster innovation throughout the construction value chain in collaboration with industry associations as well as architects, engineers, and innovators. The association demonstrates how concrete solutions can meet global construction challenges and sustainable development goals while showcasing responsible industrial leadership in the manufacture and use of cement and concrete. It complements and supports the work of associations at national and regional levels.

About CEM CCUS

The Clean Energy Ministerial CCUS Initiative is a group of 14 member countries who have joined forces to accelerate CCUS together. The CEM CCUS countries all develop comprehensive CCUS programmes, with the intent to decarbonise all relevant industrial sectors. The objective of the Initiative is to accelerate CCUS as a viable CO₂ mitigation option, facilitate diffusions of knowledge on technologies, regulations, and policies, and lead to strategic partnerships to accelerate both near- and longer-term investment in CCUS. As an action-orientate platform, the Imitative does not perform analysis, but serves to bring government, industry and the financial and investment sectors together.

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