Supporting the development of policies
Private Public Partnerships, international collaborative initiatives, associations, clusters and alliances, they are all, in different ways, collaborating in order to achieve specific goals faster, encourage action along the value chains and strengthen dialogue supporting policy frameworks. However, some of these collaboration schemes have been established in an attempt to influence the development of policies. They can be seen as being new players in the increasingly complex multi-actor, multi-level governance in this policy domain. They also provide support for strategic decision-making and lay a foundation for continuing public-private dialogue towards a concrete goal.
The development and upscaling of the technical solutions aiming net zero depend strongly on favourable policy environments, ranging from monetary incentives to demand-side policies.
The key in the transformational journey towards carbon neutrality are all the actors involved in making it happen. In contrast with what is needed, which is a predictable deployment of existing green technologies and R&I investments, the actions taken across the industry, so far, are scattered. In the next decade, success will be determined by organized and properly fuelled alliances of industrial partners in conjunction with public and social actors. In this regard, I consider that two areas are facing important synergistic gaps, namely circularity and CCUS.
What technical approaches exist already aiming for net zero?
New processes innovation
From all the possible technical approaches existing already, electrification and hydrogen are leading the way due to strong targets and strategies, aligned industry agenda and public acceptance. In this case, synergies are well stablished and starting to pave the road.
With regards to circularity, instead, despite clear trends and collaboration initiatives towards recycling, dedicated funding opportunities are yet to be improved and policies for mechanical and chemical recycling are still to be fully developed.
Additionally, there is an urgent need to create a Low-Carbon industries Alliance, specifically for the sake of CCUS technologies. A more radical recommendation would be to present the CCUS technologies as a theme worth its own Alliance given its potential, which may constitute an additional dimension to the concept of a circular economy. In resemblance to clean hydrogen, the potential for CCUS technologies lies on their wider impact, as several industries will benefit in their decarbonisation pathways from their development, in sectors like energy and the energy intensive ones. The projects are already presented but high-level coordination is lacking. There is clearly a gap, when comparing to hydrogen, in who is going to lead the way fostering the dialogue and making the number of initiatives become a success story.
