If not now, when?

It is the time to re-think and act upon towards significantly reducing climate emissions. Current political waves and multilateral efforts are not yielding the required results — a new ambitious, yet pragmatic, approach is urgently needed.

In his timely and thought-provoking two-part article Michael Liebreich proposes a ‘Pragmatic Climate Reset’ — a pathway to make the required transition more cost-efficient, energy efficient, realistic and fair. This is essential to gain the required political backing and to implement the change with reasonable cost. It is a must read for policymakers, climate tech developers, energy companies, and anyone serious about delivering results in emission reductions.

The Pragmatic Climate Reset – Part I: https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/liebreich-the-pragmatic-climate-reset-part-i/

The Pragmatic Climate Reset – Part II: https://about.bnef.com/insights/clean-energy/liebreich-the-pragmatic-climate-reset-part-ii-a-provocation/

I fully agree that we must abandon wishful thinking and set realistic targets backed with real action. The first 80-90% of global CO2 emissions can be abated with very reasonable cost and largely existing technologies. We need to act decisively instead of haggling around definitions of “net zero” or wordings around “phasing out fossil fuels”. Perfect is the enemy of the good and real action is required — NOW!

At Coolbrook we see the challenge daily when dealing with industrial majors considering their decarbonization pathways. Puristic policy-measures drive them to delay actionable near-term emission reductions in search for 100% perfect solutions. Hence, the quest for full decarbonization is actually delaying the much-needed action to battle climate change — which is a cumulative challenge, not a race to a single point in time called net zero.

We also need to adapt the policy measures to support the transition. Policymakers must create a favourable investment environment and secure build-out of the required infrastructure that enables deployment of green technologies without excessive permitting burden. Proven technologies should then face either an emission trading scheme (e.g. EU ETS) or carbon tax that dictates the most efficient pathway to achieving the targeted emission reductions over a defined time period.

As reducing climate emissions is a global challenge, we also need global policy initiatives to tackle it. However, one should not be overly dogmatic about covering all geographies and sectors in one go. A balanced approach to pricing of carbon between US, China, India and Europe would already cover 60% of global emissions (just below 50% without the US) – and set the pace for the global race towards zero carbon. By targeting a CO2 price of around 200 EUR/t over time, a 90% emission reductions pathway is fully feasible with existing technologies and solutions. To account for different starting points across geographies, the carbon tax (or emission reduction target within a trading system) can be set with adjusted time horizons and targets to ensure that all emissions have a cost, but the financial burden is shared in a fair manner.

A key pillar of any future scenario needs to be putting electrification at the core of decarbonization efforts. Ember’s excellent study on the ‘Electrotech Revolution’ is a perfect showcase: electrifying industry, transport, and heat delivers higher efficiency, near-zero emissions, and minimal cost impact — and is the fastest path forward.

The Electrotech Revolution: https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/the-electrotech-revolution/

To support industrialisation of new technologies, we need to rapidly test and demonstrate cost- and energy-efficient technologies with globally significant potential to deliver emission reductions. Current support schemes are tilted towards megaprojects and oftentimes inefficient technology choices, that yield results very slowly, if ever. We need to take risk and tolerate failures. Failing fast is much better than inaction, let alone failing slow

Especially Europe needs to look itself in the mirror. Green technologies will inevitably outpace traditional fossil-based choices. We see growing economies, such as India, Brazil and China taking determined and ambitious steps to lead the green transition. Unless Europe grabs this opportunity, we will see another wave of strategic technologies being developed and the economic benefits being reaped outside of the EU. Leadership in #climatetech should become a pan-European priority with associated policy measures, including funding, implemented decisively.

At Coolbrook we are proud to be driving the transformation across heavy industry sectors with our revolutionary RotoDynamic Technology. We can replace burning of fuels with green electricity in cement, steel, chemicals, petrochemicals, aluminium and beyond and thereby enable CO2 emission reductions of more than 2 billion tons annually. Together, we can make the Clean New Industrial Era a reality.