Why is making cement bad for the environment? How much CO2 is produced by cement production?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cement and steel that go into constructing roads, bridges, and buildings are the major sources of greenhouse gases. However, the demand for these building materials will increase as the global population grows. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In this article, we’ll look at the challenges and potential solutions for curbing CO2 emissions from cement production. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Producing one ton of cement and one ton of steel generates one and 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide, respectively, <\/strong>and the world uses a lot <\/em>of them. <\/strong>For example, the United States produces 600 pounds of cement and 600 pounds of steel per person every year, and between 2001 and 2016, China used nearly 26 billion tons of cement alone. <\/p>\n\n\n\n (Shortform note: The global cement and steel production figures are even more staggering. In 2020, the world produced over 500 pounds of steel and 9,000 pounds of cement per person<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Reducing CO2 emissions from cement production is problematic because the technology for carbon-less manufacturing on a large scale doesn\u2019t exist yet. Gates explains that our most viable yet imperfect option is to keep the process roughly the same but capture the carbon dioxide before it reaches the atmosphere. Unfortunately, while this technology exists on a relatively small scale, it can\u2019t capture all the carbon dioxide emitted, and it makes both the manufacturing and the final products more expensive. Since the options for carbon-less manufacturing are limited, using materials as efficiently as possible and recycling materials is especially important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n