Paper short abstract:

This paper draws attention to the materials that infrastructure the world we live in and are expected to make our post-carbon future. Our focus is on cement, a building material whose production is a major source of CO2, while also being essential to the construction of post-carbon infrastructures.

Paper long abstract:

What will the infrastructures of a post-carbon future be made of? By asking this question, we aim to draw attention towards the materials that infrastructure the world we live in. Our focus is on cement, a material whose production, consumption, and disposal actively participate in the large-scale rearrangements of earthly matter that characterise the Anthropocene. The manufacturing of cement is said to be responsible for about 7 to 9% of global CO2 emissions. The useful powder is obtained from limestone and clay and, as the mixture is heated, the sedimentary rocks are decarbonised. The artificial compound thus obtained is able to harden with water. Mixed with stones and sand, it makes the handy and cheap building material known as concrete. For geologists, these materials are likely to be one of the most widespread 'technofossils' of our era. Cement and concrete are being consumed on such a massive scale because they can be called upon to produce any shapes and fulfil various tasks, including - and therein lies the problem - the construction of hydropower dams, windmills, nuclear waste containment facilities, and other post-carbon infrastructures. Drawing on a study into the European cement industry, this paper will examine the ways in which manufacturers, scientists and regulators try, and struggle to produce a post-carbon substitute that could become the material of our post-carbon futures.