The Data Gap

    Why underwriting-grade information infrastructure is the prerequisite for market formation

    By Genevieve & Miles, CTC

    Executive Summary

    1

    Low-carbon cement cannot become an investable asset class without underwriting-grade data โ€” standardized, auditable, and trusted by lenders and insurers.

    2

    Today's data landscape is fragmented, inconsistent, and opaque โ€” making it impossible for capital markets to price risk accurately.

    3

    CTC is building the data infrastructure the market needs: delivered cost curves, emissions indices, and supply-demand visibility tools.

    4

    The terminal thesis: whoever builds the Bloomberg Terminal for cement decarbonization will shape how capital flows into the sector for decades.

    Capital markets run on data. Lenders need reliable cost projections. Insurers need actuarial risk models. Equity investors need comparable transactions. Rating agencies need standardized metrics. In cement decarbonization, almost none of this infrastructure exists.

    The result is a vicious circle: without data, capital cannot price risk; without capital, projects cannot be built; without projects, data cannot be generated. Breaking this circle requires someone to build the data infrastructure in parallel with the first transactions.

    "You cannot finance what you cannot measure. You cannot measure what you have not standardized."

    Underwriting-Grade Information

    1
    Delivered cost curves for low-carbon cement by technology pathway, geography, and scale โ€” enabling apples-to-apples comparison across investment opportunities.
    2
    Emissions intensity benchmarks tied to specific production processes, not self-reported averages โ€” giving carbon credit markets the granularity they need.
    3
    Capital expenditure databases tracking actual vs. projected costs across completed and in-progress projects โ€” reducing estimation uncertainty for future deployments.
    4
    Operating performance data from commissioned plants โ€” utilization rates, maintenance costs, energy consumption โ€” feeding back into underwriting models.

    Indices and Supply-Demand Visibility

    Mature commodity markets have price indices, forward curves, and supply-demand forecasts that enable hedging, risk management, and capital allocation. Low-carbon cement has none of these. CTC is building the foundational data layer that will make these tools possible.

    Green premium indices tracking the cost differential between conventional and low-carbon cement across regions and technology pathways.
    Demand aggregation tools mapping corporate procurement commitments to geographic supply availability.
    Risk scoring frameworks that translate technology maturity, offtake quality, and regulatory certainty into quantitative credit risk metrics.
    Market formation dashboards providing real-time visibility into pipeline, deployment, and pricing trends.

    The Terminal Thesis

    Every mature financial market has its information infrastructure โ€” Bloomberg for capital markets, Platts for energy, Argus for commodities. Cement decarbonization will be no different. The entity that builds the trusted data layer for this emerging market will shape how capital is allocated, how risk is priced, and how the transition unfolds.

    CTC's strategy is to build this infrastructure as a byproduct of its investment activity. Every transaction generates data. Every operating asset produces performance metrics. Over time, this proprietary dataset becomes the foundation for market-wide indices, benchmarks, and analytics that accelerate capital deployment across the entire sector.

    Data as Market Infrastructure

    The data gap is not a secondary concern โ€” it is the prerequisite for everything else. Without standardized, trusted, underwriting-grade information, capital markets cannot price risk, insurers cannot write policies, and lenders cannot extend credit. Building this data infrastructure is not a nice-to-have. It is the operating system upon which the entire low-carbon cement market will run.

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