FOCUS ON – SUSTAINABILITY
MAKING NET-ZERO POSSIBLE Industry Europe spoke to the energy transitions commission co-chair, Lord Adair Turner, to find out more about the potentials and the pitfalls of the push to Net-Zero.
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ith a light finally appearing at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel, the world is starting to turn its attention back to an even bigger existential crisis – the climate emergency. Not that long ago, it was hard to imagine that governments, industries, and citizens worldwide would perform a rapid volte-face and start taking climate change seriously. Nonetheless, it has come to pass. One of the pivotal moments was undoubtedly the Paris Climate Accord, signed in 2015 by 194 states and the European Union. Such a rare showing of international unity sent a powerful message to multinationals and citizens everywhere. And despite a short blip, when former US President Donald Trump withdrew his country’s support – something his successor Joe Biden reversed almost immediately upon taking office – there has been demonstrable action by governments and businesses everywhere to clean up their acts. However, a problem as massive as climate change requires a clear, coordinated approach. In April, the Energy Transitions Commission (ETC), a London-based international think tank comprised of leaders from across the energy sector worldwide, produced two reports – one on clean electrification, the other on clean hydrogen. The reports go handin-hand and outline ways in which the energy transition can practically be achieved, whilst expanding the global economy, and keeping the global temperature rise to below 2°C, or ideally 1.5°C, as laid out in the Paris Accord. In a wide-ranging conversation, Industry Europe spoke to ETC co-chair, Lord Adair Turner, to find out more about the potentials and the pitfalls of the push to net-zero. The reports were born out of a previous ETC report published in 2018 called Mission Possible, which focused on decarbonising the ‘harder to abate’ sectors of industry such as petrochemicals, cement, aviation, shipping, and steel. ETC concluded that 6 Industry Europe
one key technology in making the change in those sectors would be hydrogen, which itself could come from electricity. This led to the realisation that more electricity would be needed than previously thought, which ultimately led to last month’s reports. Aimed at investors, policymakers, and private businesses, Turner described the reports’ overriding message to those groups as making them “realise that hydrogen and electricity together is not just part of the story of how we get to the zero-carbon economy, it's 80% of the story. It requires a massive scale to get there, but it's all doable. The technologies are available, but
Leader Event of COP 21/CMP 11 - Paris Climate Change Conference. Image: Flickr
it requires a huge amount of investment and some very determined policies.” The remaining 20%, he said, was comprised of several technologies and largely dependent on the nature of the sector, such as Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS), and bioenergy. “Sustainable biofuels and CCS may be crucial to decarbonise long-distance aviation. Short distance aviation will be electric or hydrogen-electric hybrid. And I can't see a way to decarbonise cement production without CCS. I think CCS may also play a role in the chemical sector.” Lord Turner also pointed to the problem of methane emissions. While much is known about the “more measurable” issue of CO2
emissions, there is less certainty with methane in terms of how much is leaking out due to fossil fuel production. “We should be really tightening up on the measurement and regulation of methane emissions,” he said. “We should be using satellite infrared, which can see the methane emissions and clusters. We should be regulating the fossil fuel industry very heavily. “And to be blunt, there are good people there, but there are some people who are not so good. We can’t just trust the industry. We need to work with the good guys to help design tight measurement and regulation systems.” He added that although the Trump administration “deliberately took the regulations backwards”, he was heartened to see the new Biden government “playing catchup fast”. Discussing the ongoing problem of deforestation, which is increasing in places like Brazil, driven by rising demand for food and timber, he said it is a “trickier part of the story”. One potential answer could be synthetic meats. “What can we do about [deforestation]? Will we be able to create synthetic meats? Can we persuade people to change their diets? All of which I think is more difficult and uncertain than the energy question. “There is a technology called precision fermentation, and there is a case for longterm techno-optimism there. Every year, it gets 10 to 15% more efficient, unlike cows. My gut feeling is there may be a big breakthrough at some stage.” With so many new technologies being developed at an unprecedented speed, there is cause for techno-optimism. Nonetheless, with changes happening at such a pace, there are also concerns that some sectors of society will be left behind. The obvious example of this is in the jobs market, which combines with concerns, especially amongst older workers, that retraining will not be forthcoming in their cases.
