ICMM: Inside the GHG Impact of Construction Materials

As the construction sector moves to focus on the green energy transition and reducing embodied carbon, concerns about project sustainability regarding raw materials have been raised.

Producing these clean-energy materials is a process that results in contributions to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

However, a newly published study by the International Council on Mining and Metals (ICMM), in collaboration with Wood Mackenzie, reports that the contribution to GHG emissions is not as high as previously believed.

The past decade has highlighted the need for climate action, with rising global temperatures and weather events occurring all over the world. In response to this volatility, more individuals and businesses are changing their ways.

As the world transitions to a more sustainable model, with demand for renewables increasing every day, the mining industry – which supplies the raw materials for the built environment – is finding itself central to the movement.

At the Conference of the Parties (COP28), leaders agreed on the aim to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030, meaning the demand for critical minerals and metals is growing.

As a result, the mining industry is moving towards greater extraction and production of these materials.

However, as ICMM points out, "despite the sector’s importance to the energy transition, up-to-date, publicly available and industry-wide data has been lacking."

In response, it has surveyed leaders and analysed emissions data to explore an understanding of how much the mining and metals industry contributes to global GHG emissions.

Addressing insufficient industry data

The report explores Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions from 1,700 facilities across 14 commodities. This represents 87% of global production, so ICMM has modelled emissions using averages for the remaining 13% production volume.

"Despite our sector's importance to the energy transition, up-to-date, publicly available and industry-wide data has been lacking, contributing to the circulation of misleading estimates," says Dr Emma Gagen, Director of Data and Research at ICMM.

"ICMM's Global Mining & Metals GHG Emissions Dataset provides data and data-driven insights to underpin more informed dialogue about the sector's contribution to global GHG emissions.

"This provides the building blocks for sustainable development and the global energy transition. Like all large-scale datasets, this one will evolve, but establishing a transparent, industry-wide baseline is a necessary starting point.

"Inferred implications from the Dataset are provided separately from the data itself to allow others to be curious and make their own judgements.

"We invite all interested stakeholders to engage with the data, provide feedback or supplementary data to help improve its coverage, and collaborate with us further," Emma explains.

Steel production emissions impact

In 2024, the global mining and metals sector accounted for 11% of total GHG emissions. Of this, 3% were from mining activities and 8% was from metal production.

When examining scope activity, 93% of these emissions were Scope 1 and 7% were Scope 2.

According to the data, the largest contributors within the sector were steel production (55%), coal mining (23%) and aluminium production (15%).

These statistics are relevant for construction professionals calculating the carbon footprint of structural materials.

At present, approximately 70% of the world's steel is produced by blast-furnace-based processes.

Between 2020 and 2024, GHG emissions from mining and metal production have increased 3%, due to both the intensity of mining and the growth in global demand for the commodities.

Despite this, non-coal mining accounted for only 0.54% of global GHG emissions in 2024. In comparison, fugitive emissions from coal accounts for 2.46% of global GHG emissions.

Future low carbon solutions

There is an uneven distribution of GHG emissions from mining and metals, with 80% of emissions being generated in Asia.

This resembles the region's role as a major primary mining centre and as the dominant processing hub for most global commodities.

Steel production is responsible for most GHG emissions across regions, particularly in Europe (93%).

However, Africa and the Middle East are affected by emissions from aluminium production – making up 40% of the regions GHG emissions.

As more material is needed for infrastructure involved in electric vehicles, solar and wind turbines, the demand for aluminium and steel is growing.

These contributors to the industry's GHG emissions means that the sector must act to meet demand while also reducing its carbon footprint.

For steel, global decarbonisation is moving the sector away from blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) crude steel production, towards solutions using electric arc furnace (EAF) methods.

These solutions take a distinct approach, making use of more scrap volumes and reducing reliance on coal consumption.

As aluminium smelting is electricity-intensive, the decarbonisation move for this involves using more renewable electricity in the processes.

The transition to renewable energy across the industry will be a step towards sector decarbonisation, with an opportunity for vehicle electrification and the use of renewable energy sources across operations.