Cement is one of Asia’s most important decarbonization levers because it accounts for a significant share of industrial carbon dioxide emissions, releasing roughly 0.55 to 0.65 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of cement produced. Around 50 to 60 percent of these emissions come from limestone calcination during the clinkerization process, which makes measures that reduce clinker content and capture process CO₂ especially valuable.
The practical pathway begins with lowering the clinker factor and deploying new cement formulations, led by limestone calcined clay cement (LC³), which typically delivers around 40 percent lower emissions than ordinary Portland cement and is well suited to tropical regions with abundant clay. Updating building codes remains the key bottleneck for wider adoption. Plants should then implement energy efficiency upgrades, which can yield about 2 percent near-term abatement and 5 to 20 percent energy savings by 2030 to 2050, along with switching to alternative fuels such as biomass and waste, which typically cost 5 to 10 dollars per tonne of cement. These measures are already being adopted across Southeast Asia and India.
Finally, carbon capture, utilization, and storage will be required to address residual process emissions, although current capture costs of 60 to 120 dollars per tonne of cement mean that strong policy support is essential. These developments align with a global structural trend, as the clinker-to-cement ratio has already declined to about 0.63 and is projected to reach around 0.58 by 2030, with blended cements and alternative fuels expected to become mainstream by then.
