Europe’s cement industry is investing, with more than 120 innovation projects, including carbon capture projects, moving towards deployment. Yet cement imports into the EU have risen from 2.4 Mt in 2016 to 14.2 Mt in 2025 Mt, while exports have dropped by 63% over the same period. A viable business case for these projects in Europe now depends on how a watertight CBAM, the right competitiveness conditions in combination with transition enablers can be secured.

Several of the requests set out in the Cement Action Plan are now reflected in EU proposals and files being negotiated. Cement Europe reaffirms its support for the EU ETS as a market-based instrument that gives long-term investment certainty. The Commission’s ETS review addresses important points: market liquidity beyond 2040, the reinvestment of ETS revenues in industrial decarbonisation, the inclusion of CO₂ capture and transport for use in addition to an inclusion, be it partial and gradual, of municipal waste incinerators and clearer CO₂ accounting. The Industrial Accelerator Act and the Electrification Action Plan also open the way to lead markets and more competitive energy. In parallel, a revision of the CBAM is set to introduce a mechanism to address resource shuffling and circumvention.

We will now need delivery on the following key competitiveness drivers and transition enablers:

  • a watertight CBAM, for imports and exports, with effectiveness assessed against KPIs and loopholes closed

  • competitive electricity prices, through lower taxes and levies and investment in grids;

  • a full level playing field with waste incinerators and equal access to alternative fuels for all uses combustible waste;

  • CO₂ transport and storage infrastructure, available where and when plants need it;

  • funding and de-risking at the scale of the investments required;

  • lead markets that reward made in EU low-carbon cement and concrete.

Jon Morrish, President of Cement Europe, said: “A year ago we set out what our industry needs to decarbonise while staying in Europe. Many of those requests are now on the table. Our companies are investing. What we need now is delivery, on CBAM, on energy prices and on CO₂ infrastructure, so that these investments can go ahead at scale.”