Without enhanced international collaboration in support of decarbonisation, getting on track with the Net Zero Scenario could be delayed by decades.
International collaboration will be particularly important for decarbonising heavy industry and the long-distance transport sectors, given that they are often highly traded, serve global markets and their net zero transition involves the massive deployment of technologies under development today.
International collaboration in support of reaching net zero has increased substantially in recent years, but greater sectoral and geographical coverage will be required, alongside a focus on supporting technologies and policies.
Without enhanced international collaboration in support of decarbonisation, getting on track with the Net Zero Scenario could be delayed by decades.
International collaboration will be particularly important for decarbonising heavy industry and the long-distance transport sectors, given that they are often highly traded, serve global markets and their net zero transition involves the massive deployment of technologies under development today.
International collaboration in support of reaching net zero has increased substantially in recent years, but greater sectoral and geographical coverage will be required, alongside a focus on supporting technologies and policies.
International collaboration will be vital to get the world on track with the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 (NZE) Scenario, and particularly for decarbonising heavy industries and long-distance transport. These sectors are often highly traded, serve global markets, and their net zero transition involves the massive deployment of technologies that are still under development today. Without well-targeted international collaboration, their energy transition could be delayed by decades. Momentum continued through 2022 with three new net zero aligned initiatives launched in the aviation, cement and chemical sectors. Efforts also focused on enhancing or implementing previously launched initiatives, such as the 13 net zero initiatives in the steel, shipping, aviation, trucking and cement sectors announced in 2021. International collaboration in other sectors, and many different types of initiatives, will be needed for industry decarbonisation. This review focuses on initiatives that have an explicit net zero target or pledge for heavy industry and the long distance transport sector.
International collaboration towards net zero continues to grow, but greater sectoral and geographical coverage is needed
International collaboration towards net zero continues to grow, but greater sectoral and geographical coverage is needed
International collaboration in support of reaching net zero has increased substantially in recent years, but greater sectoral and geographical coverage will be required, alongside a focus on co-ordination across sectors and initiatives, as well as on supporting technologies and policies.
Without enhanced international collaboration in support of decarbonisation, getting on track with the NZE Scenario could be delayed by decades, as shown by the Low International Co-operation case in the IEA Net Zero by 2050 Roadmap. International collaboration could accelerate shared innovation and technology deployment, support the agreement of common international standards, and foster the development of joint approaches to achieve a level playing field for the trade of low-emission goods. International collaborative action can make the transition to net zero faster, lower cost and easier to achieve. In order to maximise these benefits, collaboration in these sectors should be inclusive, be well-coordinated and support interaction between governments, businesses and civil society. While the number of initiatives in a given sector and their members’ share of global activity alone cannot be used to quantify the strength of international co-operation, they provide useful indicators of stakeholders’ willingness to collaborate. For a more detailed assessment of the quality of international collaboration, the annual Breakthrough Agenda Report covers the status of co-operation in power, hydrogen, road transport, steel, agriculture; the upcoming 2023 edition will include new coverage of the cement and building sectors. The majority of these sectoral net zero-aligned initiatives are driven by the private sector and focus on collaboration among businesses to foster knowledge sharing and to scale up development of new technology. While public and hybrid (public–private) sectoral initiatives also exist in these sectors, some are not yet aligned with net zero. The coverage of net zero initiatives by share of global sectoral activity has expanded rapidly over the course of the past two years, but varies significantly by sector. Initiatives in the aviation sector cover the highest share of activity at 80%, due to the International Air Transport Association’s commitment to achieve net zero carbon emissions in the industry by 2050, which covers 290 airlines in 120 countries. The initiatives with the second and third highest coverages of sectoral activity are located in the cement and steel sector: Concrete Action for Climate and the Steel Breakthrough cover around one-third. Net zero initiatives in other sectors cover less than one-quarter of global sectoral activity. Many of the existing collaborative net zero initiatives have more extensive coverage in Europe and among OECD member countries. Public and private representation from Africa, Asia and Latin America is currently much lower. However, initiatives covering non-OECD countries that aim to decarbonise heavy industry and transport sectors do exist, such as Baowu Steel’s “Global Low-Carbon Metallurgical Innovation Alliance”. Nevertheless, many of these initiatives are not net zero aligned and serve largely as knowledge exchange platforms. Expanding the geographic coverage of already existing initiatives should remain an important priority for international collaboration on net zero emissions in the respective sectors.
International collaboration can take several forms, one of which is the engagement of public and private actors via sectoral net zero initiatives. The number of these initiatives saw an unprecedented increase in number in 2021, when thirteen new sectoral initiatives were launched, including public-sector, private-sector and hybrid initiatives, thanks in part to the catalytic effect of COP26 in Glasgow, United Kingdom. In 2022 three additional initiatives have been added: Mission Possible Ammonia, ConcreteZero and the Toulouse Declaration on aviation. Each uses a different framework for collaboration, from endorsement of a strategy to ramp up the production of zero-emission ammonia, to joint commitments to use 100% net zero concrete by 2050, to setting ambitious interim milestones to accelerate the transition both in the European as well as the international aviation sector.