WEF 2022: Low carbon-emitting technologies crucial to check climate change

The WEF 2022 white paper gives an overview of the key insights and results from the policy dashboard

Upscaling of "low carbon-emitting technologies" (LCETs) in the chemical industry is crucial to address climate change but are strongly affected by the political and legal environment.

Releasing a new dashboard on the impact of policy on LCETs in seven jurisdictions -- the European Union, the US, China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and the UK-- along with the paper, the World Economic Forum (WEF) said these seven are jointly responsible for about 50 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

"A complex set of policies facilitating change across value chains, in various stakeholder behaviours and in decision making will be needed to enable the broad deployment of low-carbon emitting technologies," said Jorgen Sandstrom, Head of Energy, Materials and Infrastructure Programme, WEF.

The policy dashboard is expected to provide support for both industry decision making towards real-life decarbonisation projects, as well as further policy analysis for the creation of decarbonisation-promoting policies.

The dashboard indicates that policy support for alternative hydrogen production and carbon capture and utilization is evident in all jurisdictions covered, and biomass utilization and waste processing receive the least support. However, the latter is likely to improve as countries move away from fossil fuels and feedstock.

The study gives an overview of the key insights and results from the policy dashboard. It highlights various promising LCETs, offering significant decarbonisation opportunities not only to the chemical sector but also to all industrial value chains.

However, the development and upscaling of these technologies is contingent on favourable policy environments, from monetary incentives to demand-side policies, the WEF said.

According to the paper, the creation and stimulation of an appropriate marketplace for more sustainably produced goods appears to be the policy area with the most room for improvement globally.