Juan Romero shared a piece of good news that is an important contribution to our industry and our company efforts to mitigate climate change.

Within the United Nations there is an Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) which unites some of the leading researchers on this crucial topic to analyse its implications and potential future risks, as well as to put forward projections, mitigation alternatives and best practices.

The most recent report from IPCC, titled “Climate Change 2021: the physical science basis” includes, for the first time, a crucial recognition that concrete structures absorb CO2 from the atmosphere over time (recarbonation). The amount of CO2 absorbed can be up to 50% of the process emissions that result from the decarbonation associated with the production of cement.

In the traditional cement production process, fossil fuels are typically used to heat the kiln and they are responsible for approximately 40% of CO2 emissions. With today’s technology of alternative fuels, these are the less difficult emissions to abate. The remaining 60% of carbon emissions in the production process occur in the chemical reaction of limestone in the kiln. It is these harder-to-abate emissions that the report directly references. The fact that over its lifespan, the cement, once used to produce concrete, could reabsorb up to half of these emissions, is great news for our industry.

We now have formal confirmation that concrete is the only building material that absorbs CO2 over its lifetime, an attribute that boosts the sustainable performance of our main end product.

This recognition strengthens our commitment to reach our highly ambitious carbon reduction goals for 2030 and 2050, as we continue the path towards carbon neutrality through our Future in Action program.