3 June, EU Partner Event: "Lead Markets for low-carbon Cement"
The focus of the 2025 edition of the EU Green Week is on circular economy that offers a compelling solution to some of the EU’s most pressing challenges, notably the potential to drive sustainable competitiveness, to reduce waste, and to promote innovation.
As partner of one of the events hosted in the frame of EU Green Week, Cembureau (European Cement Association) organised a webinar about "Driving Competitiveness through Circularity: Creating Lead Markets for low-carbon Cement", with more than 300 attendees. Industry stakeholders exchanged with the European Commission about regulatory needs to achieve the ambitious net-zero target by 2050.
Cement is an important construction material and at the same time a major industrial emitter. Decarbonisation of the cement industry is therefore at the heart of the sustainable transition.
The built environment (buildings and construction sector) is responsible for 37 percent of global CO2 emissions, while emissions from the construction sector are estimated at 5-12 percent of total national GHG emissions. However, Stephanos Pierides (Chairperson of the FIEC Sub-Commission “Environment”) explained that only one-fifth comes directly from the construction process (like on-site assembly). The vast majority of emissions (81 percent) are primarily linked to the production and use of the materials and products themselves.
Reducing the carbon footprint of those construction materials must remain key, and there are various ways to achieve that. Barbara Bonvissuto (Director of Ecosystems III: Construction, Machinery and Standardisation at the European Commission – DG GROW) underlined that public procurement accounts for 15% of GDP and therefore provides a huge lever to push for low-carbon materials. High costs of construction have been identified as a major contributing factor to the housing crisis in Europe. Any policy action must therefore maintain a level playing field among construction materials, which is an important condition for innovation in the built environment and to guarantee the competitiveness of the industry.
Under the umbrella of the Clean Industrial Deal, the European Commission is currently working on “green” labels for industrial products, starting with steel in 2025, followed by cement. Furthermore, an Industrial Decarbonisation Accelerator Act will lay the legislative foundation for voluntary “green” labels and is expected to be published by end of 2025. Those labels might subsequently be connected to the Public Procurement Framework (2026 revision) as a mandatory non-price criterion.
EU Green Week event: click here.