Cement production accounts for nearly 8% of global CO2 emissions, largely due to the chemical process of creating clinker. Because these emissions are inherent to the chemistry of limestone, simply switching to renewable energy is not enough to reach net zero. Industry efforts now focus on a three pronged approach: replacing clinker with supplementary cementitious materials, deploying large scale carbon capture and storage (CCS) at plants, and developing carbon-negative binders that lock CO2 into the material itself.
