Near-zero emission cement is the preferred choice in global markets, with efficient use and near-zero emission cement production established and growing in every region of the world by 2030 – Cement and Concrete Breakthrough Goal

1. Governments and industry should work through existing collaborative forums and with international standards bodies to identify and implement by the end of 2025 priority revisions for interoperability and net zero compatibility of cement and concrete emissions accounting methodologies. Governments should collectively provide clarity on principles for near-zero and low-emission cement and concrete definitions, commit to adopting definitions within national policies by the end of 2025, select methods for determining equivalency of certification schemes and provide guidelines on chain of custody models. Governments should exchange best practices and the latest standards, so that building codes and public procurement practices undergo accelerated revisions by end of 2025 to facilitate maximum possible use of supplementary cementitious materials (SCMs). 
2. Governments and companies should work through existing collaborative forums to co-ordinate and scale up early efforts to create a market for near-zero emission cement in particular, not only low-emission cement, including via high-quality, multi-year advance purchase commitments and/or direct policy support (including procurement and near-zero emission material mandates or performance standards), and including systems targeted at scaling up demand from projects in emerging economies.
3. Governments should work together with effective private sector collaborative forums to accelerate policy support, the pace of learning, business case development, and practical technology collaboration partnerships between a wider set of countries, towards rapid commercialisation of a portfolio of technologies that can achieve near-zero emissions. These partnerships should support the delivery of pilot and, most importantly, commercial-scale demonstration projects in all major emerging and developing economies well in advance of 2030. Increased open conversations are needed on how to protect intellectual property rights while accelerating knowledge-sharing and technology collaboration, as is knowledge-sharing on enabling policies for first-few-of-a-kind technology deployment.
4. Governments should increase support for, and engagement with, improved match-making functions focused on cement and concrete deep decarbonisation that can better respond to developing country requests for financial and technical assistance. This should include donor countries, recipient countries, international financial institutions, national development banks, philanthropic organisations, private financial institutions and companies, with regular meetings of ministers. Governments should share best practices to enhance enabling policy frameworks, as well as collectively set guardrails for finance in collaboration with financial institutions, so that new capacity additions and major retrofits of existing capacity are suitable for future conversion to near-zero emission technologies and do not become stranded assets