Net Zero by 2050: Industrial Decarbonization Gains Momentum to Fight Climate Change

Climate change has stressed the need for industrial decarbonization, which aims to cut down carbon emissions from industrial activities via advanced technologies such as CCUS and promoted by smart policies and sturdy funding. Its main goal is to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. Business leaders rush to acknowledge the importance of decarbonizing their operations to create long-term value in an emerging low-carbon economy. Large enterprises are actively scouting for senior talent to execute their recently announced decarbonization goals.  Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), corporate initiatives, government policies, and the growing scope of CO2 utilization are all driving industrial decarbonization. Retrofitting CCUS technologies to existing industrial infrastructure will become crucial to reaching net zero by 2050. 

The US announced a plan to reduce at least 50% carbon emissions from 2005 levels by 2030. China has also vowed to cut greenhouse gases to hit a peak by 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060. There was a renewed focus on the ‘carbon footprint’ of cryptocurrency transactions, especially bitcoin, and the need to reduce the carbon footprint of steel, shipping, aviation, and trucking industries.

During the Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP) in Paris in 2015, top-emitting countries pledged commitments called the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to reduce country-level emissions. The corporate strive towards achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs) and the adoption of digitalization has further boosted industrial decarbonization.

What is the regional and country-level outlook of the industrial decarbonization sector?

The top ten countries with mentions of decarbonization and related keywords in company filings are the US, India, the UK, Japan, Canada, Hong Kong, Australia, China, Germany, and France. The US accounts for the majority of decarbonization mentions in company filings. The decarbonization mentions in company filings of the US-based companies were focused on reducing carbon footprint from their operations and implementing decarbonization solutions such as renewable power generation, green hydrogen, blue hydrogen, CCUS, electrification, biofuels, and energy efficiency efforts. India, the UK, Japan, and Canada-based companies highlighted energy-saving goals, electrification efforts, zero emission targets, net zero ambitions, and alternate fuels like methanol.

Industrial decarbonization sector, by regions

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What are the key emerging technologies and concepts in the industrial decarbonization sector?

The key emerging technologies and concepts in the industrial decarbonization sector are green manufacturing, carbon capture-as-a-service (CCaaS), industrial IoT (IIoT), unmanned vehicles, and packaging 4.0.

Green manufacturing is adopting sustainable practices, such as less water and land utilization, minimal waste, biodegradable packaging, adopting bio-sourced chemicals, and others. The purpose for adapting such practices is to mitigate environmental impacts, primarily carbon emissions. Carbon capture-as-a-service companies would offer source-to-storage decarbonization and retrofit CCS techs into existing industrial plants to maximize the abatement of CO2. Energy-efficient communications and computation mechanisms in IIoT systems can reduce the consumption of energy and lower carbon emissions, thereby promoting decarbonization across heavy industries. Aerial drones help to sow seeds, fertilize fields more precisely, and protect insects. The vehicles can also minimize labor and energy-intensive processes in material handling, storage, and logistics facilities on-sites adding to the overall carbon mitigation. Connecting to smart grids can make them renewable. Packaging 4.0 is an extension of traditional smart packaging, which optimizes supply chains, enables the conservation of resources, and prevents their wastage.

Market report scope

This report provides:

• Impact of climate change, facts and figures, need for industrial decarbonization, technology overview, notable global efforts, and a market map of disruptors.
• The presentation of decarbonization from the media perspective. The section presents the decarbonization commitments of global corporations to achieve net zero. It also includes mentions of decarbonization in company annual filings and hiring trends.
• Outlines of the venture capital funding trends by value, volume, and geography with some of the popular deals, notable investors, active startup accelerators, and CVC investors pumping millions into the technology growth.
• Game-changing company innovations with a spotlight on startups. Select corporate-startup partnerships inclined at future product developments. The section also highlights notable big tech vendor solutions.
• A broad-level analysis of the trends in patent filings and grants, technology leaders, filing trends by technology and industry, priority countries, and some interesting patents in the industrial decarbonization technology development.
• The drivers and challenges, COP26 pledges, corporate commitments, digitization in decarbonization, potential policies to promote decarbonization, CO2 utilization, and the outlook.

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