This week the cement sector celebrated the United Nations Paris Agreement coming into force.  The agreement paves the way for more sustainable development and major reductions of CO2 emissions.  The cement sector alone could potentially reach a reduction of around 1 giga tons (one billion tons) of CO2 emissions by adopting the agreements framework.

The Paris Agreement sets out a stable regulatory framework to help business community to scale up the implementation of low carbon solutions to help mitigate climate change.

This represents an historic moment. For the first time in UN history a worldwide, ambitious, legally-binding treaty has been ratified by enough parties to enter into force in less than one year after its official adoption. This demonstrates a clear change in the parties’ commitment for all stakeholders to fight against climate change and its impacts.

CEMEX CEO currently chairs the Cement Sustainability Initiative (CSI) and Fernando Gonzalez, CEO of CEMEX, made this statement: “Climate change is a global issue that no one can solve alone. The cement sector has been working collectively since 1999 on measuring and reporting its CO2 emissions while developing solutions for mitigation and adaptation through the CSI.

We welcome the entry into force of the Paris agreement that sets the long awaited regulatory framework to scale-up the implementation of these solutions and encourages further cooperation between private companies, policy makers and the financial community.”