READ seminar: An introduction to global heavy industry decarbonization technology and policy options

The Paris agreement goal of “under 2C and towards 1.5C” transformed the global conversation for heavy industry. While the sector had expected to continue emitting as part of the last 20% allowed under and 80% reduction goal before Paris, given industrial facilities operate for 20+ years, the move to net-zero by 2050 moved the imperative to invest in clean production to the late 2020s to early 2030s. This caused a complete reconsideration of known and more remote technology options, and how we would bring them to market. This talk will review the high level landscape, and then review technological options by sector for the most GHG intense and traded commodities, i.e. reduced iron and steel, clinker, ammonia, methanol, and high value chemicals. It will then consider what policy options there are, and what this means in terms of a just local and global transition.

Bio:

Dr. Chris Bataille has been active in energy and climate policy analysis for 28 years. He is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Columbia University Centre for Global Energy Policy. Chris was a Lead Author for the Industry Chapter of IPCC AR6 WGIII, as well as the Summary for Policy Makers and Technical Summary. He manages an ongoing global project to review options for net-zero decarbonization of heavy industrial sectors, netzeroindustry.org, and has provided policy advice for the Canadian federal government, several provinces, the US DOE, departments of the NZ, UK, and French governments, and the European Commission.