It would be laughable to suggest there was an easy fix for the climate crisis. As many commentators have noted, there is no silver bullet for tackling carbon emissions.
Yet it is also true that everywhere you look, from national policy right the way down to individual everyday behaviors, there are scores of relatively simple tweaks and changes that, if all totted up together, could amount to a significant and permanent dent in global emissions.
And it is also the case that certain sectors of the economy have a far greater adverse impact on our planet's biosphere than others. So it stands to reason that, focusing decarbonization efforts on just a handful of these carbon-intensive sectors could make an outsized impact to the global transition to net zero. That basic idea hardly amounts to an easy fix, of course, but it does at least offer an effective framework through which to approach the existential risks the global economy faces.
That, in broad terms, is the hypothesis underpinning a major new collaborative study published by a coterie of experts at the University of Exeter, engineering consultancy Systemiq, the World Resources Institute, and the Bezos Earth Fund. Its eye-catching contention is that concerted action targeted at just three "super-leverage points" could trigger a cascade of decarbonization in sectors of the economy that generate 70 percent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, exploiting these three super-leverage points could prove surprisingly simple. The report argues that just three policies — mandates for electric vehicle sales; mandates requiring green ammonia to be used to manufacture agricultural fertilizers; and public procurement of plant-based proteins — could have a remarkable catalyzing impact on the global net zero transition.
The could drive decarbonization not just within road transport, agriculture and food, but accelerate the shift to net-zero emissions in 10 of the world's highest-emitting sectors.
These three interventions, it argues, could result in huge, wider impacts on the economy, driving decarbonization not just within road transport, agriculture and food, but accelerating the shift to net zero emissions in 10 of the world's highest-emitting sectors.
"With time running out, there is a need to be targeted," said Mark Meldrum, Systemiq partner and a lead author of the report. "Our report spotlights key opportunities to effect change that can produce huge returns in terms of decarbonization. It identifies positive tipping points in the highest-emitting sectors of the global economy, and analyses the conditions required to trigger them. Each super-leverage point crossed raises the chance of crossing others, and could set off a cascade of positive tipping points to steer us away from a climate catastrophe."
The report's rationale is hugely compelling. Accelerating the development and rollout of EVs would not only decarbonize road transport, but also drive down costs for batteries which could help boost renewable energy deployment worldwide. A greater abundance of cheaper, reliable renewable energy could in turn help cut costs and increase capacity for producing green hydrogen, an increasingly attractive solution for decarbonizing steelmaking, shipping and — another identified leverage point — green ammonia in agriculture.
Advances in EV technology should also help deliver electric boats, ferries, construction machinery and even aircraft, driving decarbonization across the transport sector as a whole.
The tipping point for EVs becoming the most attractive, affordable and accessible option is exceedingly close in many advanced economies.
Moreover, the tipping point for EVs becoming the most attractive, affordable and accessible option is exceedingly close in many advanced economies. In China, EV sales and exports are soaring, while in Norway they already dominate the auto market. In the U.K., and other parts of Europe, EVs are the fastest-growing segment of the car market, with numerous countries committed to phasing out fossil fuel vehicle sales altogether within the next decade.
Similarly, the report argues that mandating the use of green ammonia — produced using green hydrogen made with renewable electricity — as a replacement for the fossil fuels used to make agricultural fertilizers could be a highly effective way to kick-start the broader growth of the hydrogen market, the report argues. Low-carbon hydrogen has increasingly been touted as a potential solution for decarbonizing a raft of industries and processes, yet production capacity is far from scaling up to meet demand at present. As such, the report suggests agricultural fertilizer may hold the key to unlocking a wider green ammonia market, bringing down costs for its use in shipping, steelmaking, energy storage, and other industrial applications.
Finally, the report highlights the huge potential of plant-based proteins as alternatives to meat products, arguing that if these veggie products can beat animal proteins on cost, while at least matching them on taste and texture, it could transform land-use — and therefore slash greenhouse gas emissions — worldwide.
Governments have been reluctant to date to encourage people to eat less meat or introduce policies such as meat taxes. But the report argues that by simply harnessing public procurement to buy more plant-based "meat" alternatives for schools, hospitals, councils and government departments, policymakers could help increase consumer uptake of these products while driving down their costs. If governments and councils switched to plant-based proteins worldwide, it could potentially free up 988 million to 1.9 billion acres of land, the equivalent of 7 to 15 percent of global agricultural land today, the report estimates. That in turn could help massively reduce the incentive for farmers to clear forests to make way for animal agriculture, leaving far more land for wildlife and natural carbon sinks.
If these veggie products can beat animal proteins on cost, while at least matching them on taste and texture, it could transform land-use — and therefore slash greenhouse g
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