Fernando González, CEO of Cemex, has been elected as the new President of the Global Cement and Concrete Association (GCCA). The GCCA’s members account for 80% of global cement production capacity outside of China and have committed to achieving Net Zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.

Fernando, who has served as GCCA Vice-President since 2018, succeeds outgoing GCCA President Jan Jenisch. Fernando has been CEO of Cemex since 2014; he joined the company in 1989 and has led several operational regions and corporate functions throughout his career.

“It is a great honour to be President of the GCCA, particularly as we enter this ‘decade to deliver,’ a period during which we must accelerate our decarbonisation efforts,” said Fernando. “My number one priority as the new President of the GCCA is to collaborate closely with governments and industry to evolve the regulatory framework in ways that promote a more circular, lower-carbon economy.”

The priorities for Fernando during his two-year term include:

• Encouraging regulation that diverts municipal and industrial waste from landfills to waste to energy solutions including substitution of fossil fuels in cement kilns.
• Promoting building codes and norms that allow the extensive adoption of lower-carbon cement and concrete products.
• Establishing market-driving carbon pricing mechanisms that incentivize decarbonisation and investment in carbon reduction technologies.
• Seek funding and alliances to develop new technologies that reduce carbon emissions in the cement manufacturing process and accelerate the development and scaling of carbon capture, utilisation, and storage technologies.

Fernando recently spoke at the United Nations General Assembly’s Private Sector Forum and urged the public and private sectors to collaborate more closely to develop the regulatory ecosystem so that the cement industry can reach its full potential as a contributor to a carbon neutral society.