Decarbonizing everything is impossible — and here’s why

These are not accidental byproducts of the fossil fuel age. They are its second act, less obvious than Burning but no less important.

The global discussion about net zero emissions is almost entirely about energy. This framework is important, but it is based on a deep-seated assumption that is rarely tested: The only thing we have to worry about with fossil fuels is the energy we release when we burn them.

About 15-20% of fossil fuel consumption is not burned at all. It is transformed into the material structures of modern life: plastics, polymers, fertilizers, adhesives, solvents and synthetic textiles.

When these products are ultimately incinerated, degraded or discarded, their carbon is returned to the atmosphere, a real and growing contribution to global warming, and is almost entirely absent from mainstream net zero accounting.

In addition to the green energy transition, the materials transition also needs to be sustainable. But three industries at the heart of the problem are often overlooked: chemical manufacturing, plastic polymers and construction.

The chemical industry is the upstream engine for many modern materials and accounts for approximately 14% of global oil demand and 8% of global natural gas demand. Much of it is used as raw material rather than fuel.

Ammonia, made from natural gas via the century-old Haber-Bosch process, is the basis of the fertilizers that feed about half the world’s population. Ethylene, derived from crude oil, is a raw material for a variety of plastics, solvents and coatings. Carbon processing is a fundamental part of the industry.

About 400 million tons of plastic are produced globally every year, almost all of which comes from fossil raw materials. Only about 9% is recycled. The rest is burned, landfilled or lost to the environment. Each pathway returns fossil carbon to the atmosphere at different rates.

Construction offers more hope. Buildings can stand for 50 to 100 years, so the carbon contained in their materials can be preserved for decades.

Take wood, for example: As trees grow, they absorb carbon dioxide and store it in the wood. But the same idea can be extended to engineered materials.

Agricultural and forestry residues can be converted into biochar, a stable charcoal-like form of carbon, and used to make aggregate or concrete.

Technology could be used to capture carbon dioxide and then convert it into building products, including insulation. In each case, carbon is not simply viewed as waste; It becomes part of the longevity of buildings and infrastructure.

The solution is not to eliminate carbon from industry entirely, but to stop treating fossil carbon as the default raw material.

Chemicals, plastics and building products still require carbon, but it doesn’t always come from oil, natural gas or coal. It can be derived from plant sources or from waste from agriculture or forestry as well as other forms of sustainably sourced plant material.

It can also come from carbon dioxide captured during industrial processes and then released into the atmosphere.

If used correctly, these carbon sources can help replace fossil fuel-based carbon in polymers, building products, insulation materials and chemicals.

Careful evaluation of these alternatives will ensure that they truly reduce emissions throughout the product’s life cycle. These include the source of the carbon, the amount of energy used to extract it, whether environmental damage to the land is avoided, how long the carbon remains in the product and what happens to the product when it reaches the end of its useful life.

A related question is how to manage captured carbon. Permanently burying captured carbon in underground rocks or deep oceans would remove these atoms from accessible circulation over thousands of years, gradually depleting the surface carbon pools upon which agriculture and industry depend.

To achieve a more circular, less wasteful system, carbon should be kept in circulation and recycled at the end of its life. Burial should be a last resort.

move together

To achieve this transformation, six things need to come together. New materials must perform as well as the fossil materials they replace. Sustainable carbon supply must be mapped honestly because biocarbon is finite, so allocation choices must be made.

Policies must reward circular carbon through procurement rules, carbon pricing and regulation. Rigorous life cycle assessment can verify that new materials are indeed better, not just different.

End-of-life infrastructure must be established before scaling up production to ensure it is not an afterthought.

Trust from consumers, retailers and manufacturers will depend on proving where the carbon in products comes from, how it is processed and what happens to it at the end of its useful life.

Any source of carbon is invisible. Therefore, in order for the circular carbon materials market to function transparently, reliable labeling, certification and digital product passports are crucial. SCY

SCY

This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.