Balancing competition and collaboration

It is going to be a slow road to decarbonisation in the industrial sector. Prof. Mercedes Maroto-Valer believes the key lies in harnessing the many initiatives that are being set up

 

As the race to decarbonise picks up, it is crucial that we prioritise our biggest polluters in efforts to cut emissions. One of the largest emitters of CO₂is industry, accounting for around one quarter of all global carbon emissions. In the UK, many industrial sectors remain heavily reliant on carbon fuels, making it difficult to cut emissions even with the best of intentions.

Among the accords struck by world leaders at the UN’s COP26 climate summit in November 2021 was the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda. This agreement addressed the issue of industrial emissions head-on, outlining the challenge and requirements for decarbonisation in what is both a major global polluter and employer. It is clear that we must use new technologies to accelerate sustainability while securing and even boosting job security.

The Agenda specifically aims to increase the coordination, development and deployment of low-carbon tech in five sectors: power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture. More than 70 per cent of the world’s economy signed up, including China, India, the US, the UK and the EU.

There is no single solution to industrial decarbonisation at speed. Instead, we must harness different initiatives that together are greater than the sum of their parts. These activities can be organised around two major themes: competition and collaboration.

Competition helps to drive innovation and create a sense of urgency, while collaboration between industrial partners means that solutions are shared and knowledge disseminated. Both of these outputs are needed if we are to succeed.

The UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre (IDRIC) aims to address the challenges of industrial decarbonisation, collaborating with industry to pinpoint how action can be taken and net zero goals met, creating low-carbon and net zero manufacturing hubs. Integrating elements of collaboration and competition, we are setting a standard for industrial decarbonisation that will establish the UK as a world leader in this area as well as developing the world’s first net zero industrial cluster.

Competition plays a valuable part in encouraging industry to accelerate decarbonisation efforts and fostering a sense of urgency when exploring new ideas. The time-sensitive targets encourage us to seek innovative ways to improve processes and push boundaries.

Government and organisations have used competitions to great effect. The Industrial Decarbonisation Challenge, for example, is designed to encourage innovation across the UK’s major industrial clusters. Funded by £179m from the Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund, it makes it financially feasible to think big, awarding funding to industry and local authorities to develop plans to reduce carbon emissions. Deployment projects kicked off in March 2021 when 9 projects received funding to implement the delivery of significant emissions reduction.

While competition has an essential role to play, it cannot act alone in ensuring new technologies and approaches are adopted widely, fast. Collaboration provides opportunities for learning that are absent when new ideas are hidden away as ‘secret ingredients’.

Through cross-sector collaboration, working across the wider industry and engaging closely with organisations, policymakers and academia, we can create a multidisciplinary talent pool and establish best practices to meet shared objectives.

Collaboration also means that we can work together to upskill workers and protect jobs. By carrying out options assessments we can understand the new skills required as we accelerate decarbonisation and plan how we can upskill in key industrial sectors.

It is also only through collaboration that we can facilitate a systems approach. Decarbonising across whole regions requires engineers who understand whole systems as well as key processes or technologies. The complexity of industrial decarbonisation necessitates a holistic understanding of the problems, and overarching solutions. By integrating over 140 partners in decarbonisation efforts, IDRIC is demonstrating the benefits of scale when implementing this tactic. Green practices and energy efficiency alone will not fully eliminate the emissions of a manufacturing site over its lifetime – we must take a joined-up approach.

We are making significant strides in developing new approaches for the decarbonisation of UK industry, but industrial decarbonisation is a global challenge. The collaboration we need at home is also the attitude we should adopt in supporting and learning from partners around the world.

The Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda sets goals for signatories to meet, a feat only possible with a collaborative approach. At heart, it hopes to make clean technologies the most affordable and accessible choice in the world’s five most polluting industries by 2030. Goals include the declaration that zero emission vehicles will be the new normal in all regions and that affordable, renewable and low carbon hydrogen will be globally available. Although admirable, achieving these general objectives will require specific and targeted action.

Industrial decarbonisation is a complex challenge. No two industries are the same and the process of decarbonisation can seem daunting for traditionally high-polluting industries. However, the challenge is not insurmountable. By combining competition with collaboration we can develop solutions that address sector-specific needs.

The UK is leading the way globally in adopting this two-pronged approach and IDRIC’s work is setting a template that could be replicated elsewhere. To achieve the goals of the Glasgow Breakthrough Agenda, we must share the learnings and successes generated to create an industrial sector that is both productive and sustainable.

 

• Prof. Mercedes Maroto-Valer is director of the UK Industrial Decarbonisation Research and Innovation Centre