Materials

Cement, steel, plastics, and a handful of critical metals dominate the embodied emissions of everything we build, and decarbonizing them is harder than decarbonizing electricity. We quantify the carbon and energy intensity of these supply chains, evaluate the technologies — carbon management, electrification, hydrogen, alternative chemistries — that could cut them, and study how trade policy and resource geography shape who emits what. As clean-energy build-out accelerates, constraints on copper, lithium, and other critical minerals become first-order, a focus we are increasingly drawn to.