Industry must speed upinvestment in new technologies that allow manufacture (大量制造) of materials using renewable electricity if net zero emission (排放) targets are to be met, research led by the University of Leedswarns.
Ensuring that noelectricity is produced from fossil fuels by 2050 is vital for achieving netzero. However, its effect will be limited if industry cannot use this electricity.Steel manufacturing alone accounts for a tenth of all carbon dioxide (CO2)emission in industrialised countries but latest estimates suggest newtechnologies to manufacture steel using electricity will not become fullyoperational until at least 2040.
The lead author of thestudy, Dr Alan Grainger, from the University of Leeds School of Geography, said," Delays in replacing existing steel manufacturing capacity represent acrucial ‘lock in' constraint (约束) on achieving net zero." Humanity's great dependence on steel, which accounts for 94% of allmetal production, is a huge blockage that cannot be ignored, The UK Net Zero Strategy, published lastweek, recognizes this problem, but lacks detail on how to deal with it.
Governments shouldstrengthen international carbon reporting standards for energy-intensiveindustries, the paper says, so that total levels of CO2 productionduring the manufacture and lifetime of materials can be measured more obviouslyin assessing progress towards national net zero targets. The carbon price alsoneeds to rise to make it economically viable (可行的) to introduce newmanufacturing technologies with low CO2 emission.
