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 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 more than 7.5 million tons of CO₂, equivalent to the emissions of 1.6 million passenger vehicles driven for one year. With our new target of further reducing 35% our net CO₂ emissions by 2030, we commit to avoid the annual emission of up to 16.1 million tons of CO₂ by 2030 compared to 1990 levels, equivalent to the emissions of 3 million passenger vehicles driven for one year.

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. Close to 90% 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 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 content in our cement products is of 78.7% as of 2019, down from 85.5% in 1990. This has allowed us to avoid approximately 4 million ton of CO₂ during 2019.