Pillar 2: Support development of new climate solutions

The current suite of cost-competitive zero-carbon technologies – wind, solar, batteries and electrified transport, among others – is poised to cut emissions meaningfully over coming decades. But to zero out emissions entirely, more technologies will be required to provide around-the-clock, zero-carbon power, to decarbonize industrial processes, to cut emissions associated with livestock production and to meet other challenges.

Global supply and demand for green industrial products, such as net-zero steel, cement and fertilizers, will be crucial to delivering on international climate targets. While the technologies to decarbonize these hard-to-abate sectors exist, their commercialization is still at early stages. Just 3% of the global investment in the energy transition tracked by BloombergNEF in 2022 went to low-carbon technologies for industry. Policymakers must create enabling environments to accelerate the commercialization of key emerging technologies for the industrial transition in Pillar 2, so that industry can deploy clean solutions at pace and scale in the 2030s.

To achieve global net-zero, every sector of the energy economy needs to eliminate emissions completely by mid-century. There can be no free riders. Even the hardest-to-abate sectors will need to adopt carbon-free solutions, only turning to carbon removals where absolutely necessary.