For years, we have focused on reducing our emissions, increasing energy efficiency in our operations, using alternative fuels, decreasing our clinker factor and promoting the use of renewable energy.

Up to 2019, we have achieved a significant reduction globally of more than 22% in our net CO₂ emissions per ton of cementitious compared to 1990 levels, which, just for that year alone, meant we avoided emitting approximately 7.5 million tons of CO₂, equivalent to the emissions of 1.6 million passenger vehicles driven for one year. With our target of further reducing 30% our net CO₂ emissions by 2025 and 35% by 2030, we commit to avoid the annual emission of up to 16 million tons of CO₂ by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, equivalent to the emissions of 3 million passenger vehicles driven for one year. Our 2030 CO₂ emissions reduction target and implementation roadmap has been validated by the Carbon Trust including both scope 1 and 2. The Carbon Trust validation confirms that we have a robust climate change strategy, the appropriate corporate governance and planning mechanisms for the implementation of our pathway to reduce our emissions in line with the Sectoral Decarbonization Approach (SDA) 2-degree scenario (2DS). Furthermore, CEMEX Europe has achieved in 2020 a 35% reduction in its net CO₂ emissions per ton of cementitious compared to 1990 levels and we have taken a step ahead by committing to achieve a 2030 reduction of 55% compared to 1990 levels. This European target is in line with the Paris Agreement climate ambition.

Additionally and thinking beyond 2030, we have established an ambitious strategy to address climate change, which includes delivering net-zero CO₂ concrete by 2050 globally, which will contribute to the development of climate-smart urban projects, sustainable buildings and climate-resilient infrastructures.

During 2019, despite the divestment of two plants with high alternative fuels performance, we achieved an increase of our global fuels substitution rate to 28%, up one percentage point from 2018. 96% of our cement plants co-processed more than 3 million tons of waste as alternative fuels, enabling the replacement of almost 2 million tons of coal. We will continue to seek investment opportunities to find and transform new sources of waste to replace fossil fuels, wherever possible.

We currently lead our industry in the use of renewable energy, establishing an ambitious 2025 goal of 35% and a 2030 goal of 40% of our projected electricity consumption. As a result of our global strategy to transition to clean energy sources, in 2019, 30% of our cement operations’ electricity came from renewable sources.

The use of cementitious materials reduces the clinker-to-cement ratio, which means lower emissions and lower energy use. CEMEX uses clinker substitutes such as blast furnace slag, fly ash, limestone and other pozzolanic minerals to reduce our carbon footprint. Currently, the average clinker to cementitious ratio of our products is 77.8% as of 2019, down from 85.5% in 1990. This has allowed us to avoid approximately 4 million ton of CO₂ during 2019.