Tech

A clean industrial revolution is the only way to achieve Net Zero


To avoid a climate disaster, the whole world needs to change the way it does business. It is difficult to overstate the extent of the change required. We need new ways to grow food, make things, move around, generate electricity, and heat and cool our buildings, all without emitting greenhouse gases. What the world needs right now is a new one, clean industrial revolution, so we could be net zero by 2050.

It’s an ambitious goal, but it’s achievable. I think three things will happen in 2022 that will accelerate the essential shift to a clean economy.

First is climate change will remain a high priority. This may seem like a no-brainer, but in reality it would represent a break with the past. After the 2008 recession, polls showed climate change had fallen far short of voters’ lists of priorities around the world. In this crisis, however, climate change cannot prevail. Even in pandemic-ravaged places, young people, activists, shareholders and employees will hold government and corporate leaders accountable for making real progress. .

Second, global business and political leaders will respond to these demands with concrete plans to eliminate emissions. This would also be a break from the past, when governments and corporations could make quirky, pleasurable promises that didn’t really do much to solve problems. Those days are gone.

In 2022 and beyond, companies will get credit not only for investing in sustainability, but also for correct on type investments — especially those in clean technology that will reduce future emissions. Investors will accelerate the phasing out of technologies that contribute to climate change, building on a global trend that has seen private capital increasingly invested in the energy transition, increasing to $500 billion (£361 billion) by 2020.

Investors will also increasingly reward companies that take courageous steps to fund the technologies we need to go to zero, but have not yet implemented — technologies like clean hydrogen, direct air intake, long-term electricity storage, and sustainable aviation fuel. These investments will be guided by better tools, such as the Emerging Climate Technologies Framework developed by the nonprofit Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which measures the impact of climate change impacts. today’s investment in clean energy for tomorrow’s emissions.

We will also see the private and public sectors harness their purchasing power to create new markets for clean products – such as pledging to buy fleets of electric vehicles, using cleaner steel and cement for their construction projects and get more electricity from zero-carbon sources. As consumption of these products increases, their markets will become more mature, fostering innovation and lowering costs.

The more governments and companies are involved in eliminating emissions, the more they need to partner with others. So my third prediction is that we’ll see the proliferation of new ways of working together.

Governments and the private sector will create new operating models so we can build markets for these products and accelerate the transition to a clean economy. One example is the work the European Commission is doing with Breakthrough Energy, a network of investment vehicles, philanthropic programs and advocacy efforts I founded. Over the next five years, Breakthrough Energy and the European Commission will raise up to $1 billion (£722 million) to build large-scale commercial demonstration projects for climate-smart technologies, create the learning by doing necessary to reduce the cost of new solutions. Even more partnerships like this will emerge in 2022.

I am very excited for next year and I believe we are just at the beginning of a revolution that will be powered by the next generation of clean technology. The challenge ahead could not be greater, but the seeds of a netless economy are being planted around the world.


Get more expert predictions for the coming year. World with WIRE in 2022 features intelligence and must-know insights sourced from the brightest minds in the WIRED network. Now available on newsstands, as a Digital Download, or you can order your copy online.


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