CEMEX recently announced that it is a founding member of the First Movers Coalition (“FMC”), a new initiative launched at COP26 that unites more than two dozen of the world’s leading companies to accelerate innovation and the development of early-stage decarbonisation technologies by leveraging their combined purchasing power. The FMC brings together business leaders with global footprints to create market demand for zero carbon solutions in this decade and jump-start the scaling of these emerging technologies.

The coalition is a partnership between the World Economic Forum and the US Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. It is the only buyers’ club working to scale new technologies across the heavy industry and heavy-duty transport sectors.

According to International Energy Agency (“IEA”), roughly half of the emission reductions needed to reach the critical 2050 climate target of keeping the global temperature increase under 1.5 degrees Celsius, when compared to pre-industrial levels, rely on new and emerging technologies. The FMC will create new markets and promote growth by leveraging collective demand and purchasing commitments for zero emission goods and services by 2030.

The coalition will work across eight key sectors. Seven of these sectors —steel, cement, aluminum, chemicals, shipping, aviation, and trucking—account for more than a third of global carbon emissions, but do not currently have cost-competitive energy alternatives to fossil fuels.