The sectoral Roadmap to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, fully aligned with the CO₂ emissions reduction target set by the Government for 2030

The Government of the Generalitat de Catalunya has recently approved and published the proposal for carbon budgets for the period 2026-2030 for Catalonia. The document sets out gross emissions of a maximum of 161.6 MtCO₂ equivalent over these five years, a figure that represents a 31% reduction compared to 1990. This average figure for all sectors of economic activity rises, in the case of industry, to 33%. 

The carbon budgets are a mechanism for planning and monitoring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to integrate the objectives of the Law into sectoral policies and to guide Catalonia towards climate neutrality, towards zero emissions. The document approved by the Government has taken into account, among other factors, scientific knowledge, the impacts on different sectors and their achievable reduction potentials by 2030, economic and social circumstances, competitiveness, energy policy, emission scenarios, and new international treaties. 

The carbon budgets for the period 2026-2030 set the minimum contribution that Catalonia must assume to achieve the European Union’s overall greenhouse gas reduction target for 2030. In the case of the Catalan cement industry, this 33% threshold set for five years from now is fully attainable. Moreover, the sector’s Roadmap to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 foresees that, by 2030, the emissions of Catalan cement plants will have achieved a 42% reduction compared to 1990 levels. 

This 42% reduction includes the contribution of CO₂ capture (CCUS technologies), which, unfortunately, is very doubtful that it could be operational by 2030, given that Catalonia still lacks the necessary and essential CO₂ transport and storage infrastructures to implement them. In fact, the Spanish Administration has not yet granted the necessary permits for their installation. Nevertheless, and therefore without counting the contribution of the CCUS foreseen in the sectoral Roadmap for 2030, the reduction set out in the carbon budgets would still be achieved. 

In the case of the cement industry, the investments made in recent years by Catalan companies to expand the capacity for material and energy recovery from waste, the procurement of electricity from renewable sources, the optimization of energy efficiency through the implementation of management systems, and the development of low-carbon cements have become the main levers for decarbonization.