Insights from the cement sector decarbonization roadmap workshop in India.

Cement production is highly emission intensive and is considered a hard-to-abate industry. Although technological solutions exist that would allow cement to be produced with close-to-zero emissions, decarbonizing the cement sector is more than only a technological transition. The cement sector is deeply embedded in our economies and societies, and decarbonizing it requires a major socio-technical transition, involving co-evolutionary shifts in markets, business models, policies, infrastructure, demand-side behaviour, norms, and institutions. The transition to a decarbonized cement sector is also deeply political and local context-specific.

Use of roadmaps is one approach that can build momentum and overcome inertia around transition. The method provides a pre-determined goal associated with a desirable future and sets out possible pathways, strategic plans, actions, and policies required to reach that point. Such industry transition roadmaps can serve as analytical tools for understanding, framing and shaping complex transitions. They offer an opportunity to set out the timing and sequencing of policy, investment and innovation in such a way that reduces the risk of industries being locked into higher emission trajectories due to the long lifespan of industrial assets.

This brief summarizes the key takeaways and policy recommendations from a roadmap workshop that underscored the importance of definitive roadmaps for decarbonizing the cement sector in India. In New Delhi on 11 April 2022, stakeholders, industry representatives, and experts participated in the second roadmap workshop jointly organized by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Leadership Group for Industry Transition (LeadIT) Secretariat, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (India) and the Strategic Partnership for the Implementation of Paris Agreement (SPIPA).