Researchers from Khalifa University of Science and Technology in Abu Dhabi and other internationals have revealed six steps that contribute effectively to achieving carbon neutrality in the industrial sector by 2050. Represented by increasing financing by five times, accelerating technology transfers, investing in human resources, setting binding targets and managing social acceptance and the formation of new global treaties and climate clubs, to contribute to mitigating the climate change problem and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The research team stated that the global industrial sector accounted for 38% of the total final use of energy in 2020, and this sector is considered the highest in carbon dioxide emissions and the most considerable global source of greenhouse gas emissions by more than a third whether electric energy consumption is calculated and thermal energy production.
They showed that the industrial sector was protected from energy and climate policies due to some concerns related to job loss, local competitiveness, and cross-border carbon leakage. The researchers believe that the process of rapid and deep carbon removal resulting from global industry is the basis for achieving the climate policies’ goals.
In this context, Dr Steve Griffiths, Senior Vice President for Research and Development, Professor of Practice at Khalifa University, along with Dr Benjamin Sophakul from the University of Sussex, Boston University. In addition to Dr Jensu Kim from Hanyang University and Dr Morgan Bazilian from the University of Colorado came up with challenges and developed six practical steps to accelerate the process of achieving carbon neutrality in the industrial sector by 2050.
Steve Griffith said that carbon neutrality could be achieved in a few sectors, such as the electricity and construction sectors, but only in exceptional cases and not essential criteria, pointing to the difficulty of the industrial sector in particular.
He added, “There are productive and promising transformational innovations that can be used to reduce industrial carbon emissions. However, the application globally is challenging, as not all countries can adopt them quickly and effectively.
He also indicated that these innovations include the dilute iron use, which is based on low-carbon and carbon-free hydrogen, in the steel industry. According to the researchers, a combination of financial challenges, inadequate infrastructure, lack of necessary skills in the workforce, and political economy considerations prevented the required efforts to implement transformative innovations globally, in addition to the need for solutions tailored to the context.
On the other hand, expanding the scope of international financial support in the industrial carbon neutrality field, especially in developing countries, is very important, and researchers say that the volume of annual spending on measures to achieve industrial carbon neutrality must be increased by 2030.
