27th February 2024: ACT, Ecocem’s groundbreaking low carbon cement technology, has been selected to showcase at The Buildings and Climate Global Forum – a first-of-its-kind event that will build on the progress made at the recent United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28). Ecocem will be the only international cement technology company exhibiting at the event and will be joining ministers from national and sub-national governments, fellow industry stakeholders, and international organisations.
The Forum, co-organised by the French Government and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), with the support of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (Global ABC), will take place on 7-8th March 2024, in Paris, France.
It follows the successful launch of the Buildings Breakthrough at COP28 at the end of 2023. That initiative, supported by 28 governments and the European Commission, among others, aspires to make near-zero-emission and resilient buildings the new normal by 2030
The two-day Buildings and Climate Global Forum will be a unique opportunity for senior government officials and leaders in the construction sector, along with other stakeholders, to transform the way buildings are constructed. The construction sector will be crucial in achieving a 1.5°C decarbonisation trajectory as per the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Governments will be invited to endorse a common declaration outlining shared principles and a cooperation framework for global efforts to achieve decarbonisation and climate change resilience in the building sector. All stakeholders of the buildings sector will be invited to make specific commitments to support the Forum’s ambition
Ecocem’s ground-breaking technology, ACT, has received a European Technical Assessment (ETA). This confirms ACT as a safe, high performance, scalable, low carbon, and energy efficient alternative to traditional cement. It opens a route to full commercialisation for the technology by 2026 and provides the opportunity for the cement and concrete industries to do likewise.
ACT is a scalable breakthrough cement technology that combines a range of technical innovations with the use of widely available low-carbon materials for rapid and competitive decarbonisation of cement production by as a much as 70%. ACT is fully aligned with the Forum’s ambition.
Donal O’Riain, Founder and Managing Director at Ecocem, said: “The Buildings and Climate Global Forum is happening at a crucial moment for the planet. Urgent and deep decarbonisation of construction materials is essential to achieving the 2015 Paris Agreement targets. Cement production is responsible for almost 8% of global CO2 emissions. Ecocem’s ACT low carbon technology can decarbonise the cement sector on a trajectory consistent with 1.5°C of global warming, making it the first major industry sector to achieve this feat. But we must now mobilise resolutely, rapidly, and globally to deploy this technology. The first ambition should be a 50% reduction in CO2 emissions from cement by 2030. Technology is no longer the barrier.”
Responding to the UN Environment Programme’s latest report Susan McGarry, Director of Public Affairs and Sustainability at Ecocem, looks at how the construction industry can accelerate decarbonisation.
Ecocem, Europe’s leading provider of low carbon cement technologies, has joined other prominent businesses in calling for the UK Government to reassert the country’s global climate leadership position at COP29.