Wet concrete has been poured into buildings, roads, bridges and more for centuries. Structures using concrete have survived wars and natural disasters, outlasting many of the civilizations that built them. Alongside its strength and resilience, concrete is also a staple of building because it is relatively cheap and simple to make. Worldwide, 30 billion tonnes of concrete is used each year. On a per capita basis, that is 3 times as much as 40 years ago — and the demand for concrete is growing more steeply than that for steel or wood.
The Kyoto Protocol was the first serious effort to not only acknowledging a role of humans in global warming, but to also implement measures to reducing this impact caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Since then, carbon emissions have been rising constantly, largely fuelled by considerable economic growth.
With 1626 MtCO2, cement production is a rather surprising source of carbon emissions.
Most emissions from cement production by far in 2020 were produced in China (858 MtCO2), which is home to about 60% of the global cement production, followed by India (123 MtCO2), Vietnam (53 MtCO2), the United States of America (41 MtCO2), and Turkey (5 MtCO2). Indonesia, Saudia Arabia, Japan, Iran and South Korea complete the top 10.
