MechChem Africa November 2019

Following engagement with The Clean Energy Wire (CLEW) which, in cooperation with the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy, recently hosted a research tour of the decarbonisation pathways being developed by Europe’s top-emitting industries, Louis Mielke introduces the Energy Transition Commission’s (ETC’s) ‘Mission Possible’ initiative and summarises one of the associated Mission Possible sectoral reports: Reaching net-zero carbon emissions from plastics . Mission Possible: Net-zero carbon emissions

M ission Possible is an ETC initia- tive to identify ways of reach- ing net-zero carbon emissions from harder-to-abate industry sectors. It is underpinned by the objective of

limiting global warming, ideally to 1.5 °C and, at the very least, to well below 2.0 °C by the middle of the 20th century. Several reports have been produced that outline possible routes to fully decarbonise cement, steel, plastics, trucking, shipping and aviation – which together represent 30% of today’s energy emissions, a figure that could increase to 60%bymid-century as other sec- tors lower their emissions. ETC’sMissionPossible initiative finds that reaching net-zero carbon emissions from heavy industry and heavy-duty transport sectors is technically and financially possible – by 2050 in developed countries and 2060 in developing countries – with technologies that already exist, although several still need further investment to reach commercial readiness. The total cost to theglobal economyof this achievement would be less than 0.5%of GDP bymid-century and could be reduced further by improving energy efficiency, makingbetter use of carbon-intensive materials (through greater materials efficiency and recycling)

and by limiting demand growth for carbon- intensive transport (through greater logistics efficiencyandmodal shifts). Also, this couldbe achieved with a minor impact on the cost of end consumer products. Themost challenging industrial sectors to decarbonise are identified as plastics, mostly due to end-of-life emissions; cement, due to process emissions; and shipping, because of the high cost of decarbonisation and the fragmented structure of the industry. Key policy levers were also identified to accelerate the decarbonisation of harder-to- abate sectors. These include: • Tightening carbon-intensity mandates on industrial processes, heavy-duty trans- port and the carbon content of consumer products. • Introducing adequate carbon pricing, strongly pursuing the ideal objective of internationallyagreedandcomprehensive pricingsystems,butrecognisingthepoten- tial to use prices that are differentiated by sector, applied to downstream consumer products and defined in advance.

A chemical pro- cess engineer, Louis Mielke is a past Vice President and convenor of the Small Tonnage Interest Group of SAIChE. He

is a member and director of the Virtual Local Section of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). His career covers production, safety, design and commissioning in the mining, food, chemicals and oil and gas industries. Louis Mielke is currently active in the environmental and energy fields.

Reaching net-zero emissions from plastics is possible by combining four major decarbonisation routes.

6 ¦ MechChem Africa • November 2019