Basic materials such as steel and cement have been instrumental to modern society, but the production requires high energy inputs and is associated with significant CO₂ emissions. Long investment cycles, slow turnover rate of the capital stock, and high capital intensity mean that basic materials industries are among the economic activities that will be the most difficult to decarbonize. Although the importance of addressing industrial emissions has been increasingly recognized, the development of measures and technologies that could deliver deeper emissions cuts has been relatively slow. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework focusing on four categories of barriers—market, technology, regulatory, and coordination—that hamper deep decarbonization in the basic materials industries. We use the Swedish basic materials industries and policy context to illustrate how the proposed framework can be understood and applied and broadly discuss policies that can facilitate the climate transition.

钢铁和水泥等基础材料对现代社会发挥了重要作用，但生产需要大量能源投入，并且会产生大量的 CO ₂排放。投资周期长、股本周转速度慢、资本密集度高意味着基础材料行业是最难脱碳的经济活动之一。尽管解决工业排放问题的重要性日益得到认可，但能够实现更深入减排的措施和技术的发展却相对缓慢。在本文中，我们提出了一个概念框架，重点关注阻碍基础材料行业深度脱碳的四类障碍——市场、技术、监管和协调。我们使用瑞典基础材料行业和政策背景来说明如何理解和应用拟议的框架，并广泛讨论可以促进气候转型的政策。