This report provides guidance for banks on engaging with policymakers and industry stakeholders to accelerate the decarbonization of the cement sector, a hard-to-abate industry. Concrete is essential to modern construction and the cement it contains constitutes one of the world’s most emissions-intensive industries. Achieving low-carbon cement will require a combination of breakthrough technologies, material innovation and an enabling policy environment. As demand for cement continues to grow in many emerging economies, accelerating the sector’s transition is increasingly urgent.

While many decarbonization technologies already exist, their deployment remains constrained by high costs, regulatory barriers, limited infrastructure and insufficient demand for low-carbon cement. This report outlines targeted policy recommendations designed to address these constraints and crowd in private finance.

The report identifies six key transition levers: Carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS), efficiency of concrete use, use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs), alternative cement chemistries, fuel switching and use of electricity and hydrogen. For each lever, it outlines the main technological, financial, and regulatory challenges that constrain investment and deployment. 

Intended as a practical resource for banks’ policy engagement activities, the publication sets out a series of policy recommendations designed to improve the bankability of cement transition projects and mobilize private capital at scale.