Significant reductions in emissions are possible with existing technologies, especially through efficiency gains. This is the case for buildings especially (see chapter 3.6), as well as through optimisation via digitalisation across sectors, where climate modelling suggest an abatement of 668 megatonnes (Mt) CO2e, equivalent to 1.3 % of global emissions in 2030. Digital technology enabling teleworking also has a potential to reduce emissions related to mobility.
For energy systems, the International Energy Agency (IEA) evaluated close to 400 mitigation related technologies. More than half are not commercially available today and 35 % are in early adoption phases needing further innovation. The more mature technologies are generally linked to buildings and power generation, while industry, transport and fuel transformation technologies lag behind. In IEA projections, significant leaps are required to bring forward net-zero emissions in the energy systems from 2070 to 2050. For the 2050 case, technologies at laboratory or small prototype stage are expected to be commercialised in 10 years, a pace only achieved once before, in the case of light-emitting diode (LED) technology. For the efforts to reach 1.5°C, the IPCC notes the importance of reaching environmental and social acceptance, including the affordability of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technology, without which it states the 1.5°C pathway will be ‘difficult to realise’.
Be the first to write a comment.