Cement industry is the largest carbon emission industry next to steel. It has a significant impact on the realization of the “dual carbon” goal. Life cycle assessment （LCA） is a tool for quantitative analysis of environmental load of cement throughout its life cycle. The current status of the research on the use of LCA to evaluate the integrated environmental load of cement was reviewed. Four critical steps of the LCA method were systematically described， including the goal and scope definition （functional unit and system boundary）， inventory analysis （input data， output data and allocation method）， impact assessment （classification， characterization and normalization） and life cycle interpretation. The improvement measures for low environmental load， such as using alternative fuels and alternative materials， transformation of production process， carbon capture technology and development of low-carbon cementitious materials were comprehensively analyzed. The cooperative optimization of environmental load and cement performance as well as its existing limitations were discussed. The future research direction were proposed.