Reaching net-zero carbon emissions in construction supply chains – Analysis of a Swedish road construction project

Recent estimates suggest that the construction sector accounts for approximately one quarter of global CO2\ua0emissions. This paper assesses the potential for reducing the climate impact of road construction. The study is\ua0structured as a participatory integrated assessment with involvement from key stakeholders in the supply chain,\ua0supported by energy and material flow mapping, an extensive literature review and a scenario analysis. Theresults indicate that it is technically possible to halve road construction CO2 emissions with today’s best available\ua0technologies and practices, to abate more than three quarters of the emissions by 2030 and achieve close to net\ua0zero emissions by 2045. Realising the current potential would rely on sufficient availability of sustainably\ua0produced second-generation biofuels, indicating a need to speed up the implementation of alternative abatementmeasures, including optimization of material use and mass handling requirements, increased recycling of steel,\ua0asphalt and aggregates and enhanced use of alternative binders in concrete. Policy measures and procurement\ua0strategies should be aligned to support these measures with a clear supply chain focus. For deep decarbonization\ua0several key opportunities and obstacles for realisation of breakthrough technologies for basic industry are\ua0highlighted – including electrification and carbon capture for steel and cement, and hybridisation and electrification\ua0for heavy transport and construction equipment. There is a clear need to prepare for deeper abatement\ua0and associated transformative shifts already now and to carefully consider the pathway of getting there while\ua0avoiding pitfalls along the way, such as overreliance on biofuels or cost optimizations which cannot be scaled up\ua0to the levels required

Towards zero-CO2 production and practices in the supply chains for buildings and infrastructure – first experiences from a Swedish case study

This paper reports from initial case study work, with the aim to analyse transformative roadmaps for the supply chains for buildings and transportation infrastructure. The work is part of the Mistra Carbon Exit research programme, which addresses and identifies the technical, economic and political challenges for Sweden to reach the target of net zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2045. The case study work gathers some 30 stakeholders, along the supply chain from building materials to end products in the form of buildings and infrastructure. The work is structured as a participatory integrated assessment and this paper provides an analysis based on the first stages of the assessment process. The aim of the first participatory workshop and case study meetings was to capture a wide range of perspectives with regards means available to tackle the challenge of radically reducing the climate impact from the building and infrastructure sector. This includes exploring:1. Measures/tools to realise the potential of a 50 % reduction in the climate impacts from building and infrastructure construction processes that have been shown to exist already today, and,2. Measures/tools to accelerate the transition towards zero-emission production and practices in the supply chains from raw materials to completed buildings and infrastructure.The outcomes from the first stages of the case study work show the importance of:Increasing coordination and collaboration along the supply chains, so as to facilitate collective action among stakeholders in the supply chain from basic materials to buildings and infrastructure. This will include developing a common understanding, language and framework among the stakeholders.Public actors taking the lead in the transformation, for example by means of innovative procurement practices.Establishing markets for zero-CO2 products and services, both for tapping the potential for early mitigation and for developing and deploying transformative shifts in production and practices, including: i) financing and de-risking investment in transformative technologies, ii) pricing emissions and de-meriting use/production of CO2-intensive products, and iii) incentivizing demand reduction and substitution of materials

Supply Chain Driven Commercialisation of Bio Energy Carbon Capture and Storage

Pulp mills, as large biogenic CO2 point sources, could adopt Bio Energy Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) through retrofitting carbon capture. These existing carbon sources constitute a great potential to roll out BECCS on commercial scale. Yet, despite political targets for negative emission production in Sweden, no incentive schemes were thus far enacted. While previous proposals focus on governmental compensation, the aim of this work is to set BECCS into the supply chain of a wide array of consumer products and thereby find alternative or complementary, business-driven, ways to incentivise BECCS when applied to the pulp and paper industry. In this work, we assess a “value proposition” for low-carbon products in supply chains linked to the pulp and paper industry. By projecting the costs and negative emissions related to BECCS from the pulp mill to typical consumer products, as exemplified by three case study products, we show how BECCS can substantially reduce the carbon footprint of the consumer products, while only marginally increasing their cost. Additional price premiums could shorten the payback period of the initial investment in BECCS. The developed business case presents how actors along the supply chain for pulp and paper products can collectively contribute to securing financing and to mitigating investment risks. The results challenge the private sector, i.e., the companies along the pulp-and-paper supply chain to commit considerable investments also in the case without or with too weak direct political incentives. We conclude by discussing the governance implications on corporate and public level to enable the collaborative “bottom-up” adoption of BECCS

Achieving net-zero carbon emissions in construction supply chains - A multidimensional analysis of residential building systems

The construction sector accounts for approximately 25% of global CO2 emissions. In this paper, we provide a multidimensional assessment of the potential for greenhouse gas emissions abatement in relation to the construction of multi-family residential buildings. Different building designs are compared, whereby the study analyzes the potential reductions in greenhouse gas emissions when combining abatement measures with a perspective of the technologies and practices available now, and those that are likely to become available on a timescale up to Year 2045. Further, the assessment analyzes the potential for emissions reductions when applying abatement measures at different points in the supply chain, from primary material production via material composition to the final building structure. The results indicate that the greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced by up to 40% with currently available technologies and practices, with even greater potential reductions of 80% to Year 2030 and 93% to Year 2045

A just transition towards a coal-free steel industry: perspectives from labour

Limiting global warming to ‘safe’ levels will require rapid and radical reductions of greenhouse gas emissions across all sectors of the global economy. The discontinuation of incumbent industrial structures, that will be an unavoidable part of such sustainability transitions, will disproportionally burden certain groups. Recent events including the social and political unrest linked to the imminent deterioration of coal communities and the fuel tax protests of the ’Gilets Jaunes’ have loudly shown that distributional effects of climate transitions cannot be ignored. Trade unions and NGOs have for some time called for an inclusive transition and brought increased attention to the justice dimension of energy transitions. In this paper, we analyse potential social impacts in a concrete case: the planned transition from coal to hydrogen-based steelmaking in the Swedish steel industry. To this end, we conduct a series of semi-structured interviews to examine the role of trade unions and the national trade union federation in re-orienting the industry. By doing so we aim to widen the scope of the just transitions debate to include process industries and to explore the concrete meaning of a just transition in the case of the planned transition of the Swedish steel industry.We analyse, on the one hand, the capacity of trade unions to influence the transition process, and, on the other hand, the potential social impacts of the transition on the labour force and local communities. As the transition of the Swedish steel sector kicks into gear, we highlight a number of social issues that should be addressed both within industry and through policy. We conclude that it is important to early on: include stakeholders in the process, bring up social and political aspects of the transition, and acknowledge and address potential conflicting interests associated with it

Supply-chain collective action towards zero CO2 emissions in infrastructure construction: Mapping barriers and opportunities

Successful decarbonisation of the supply chains for buildings and infrastructure, including the production of basic materials, will involve the pursuit - in parallel - of measures to ensure circularity of material flows, measures to improve material efficiency, and to radically reduce CO2 emissions from basic materials production. Emphasis in this work has been on how “intangible” factors such as implicit or explicit constraints within organisations, inadequate communication between actors in the supply chain, overly conservative norms or lack of information, hinder the realisation of the current carbon mitigation potential. Although this work draw primarily from experiences in Sweden and other developed economies we believe the focus on innovations in the policy arena and efforts to develop new ways of co-operating, coordinating and sharing information between actors (SDG17) and on practices and processes that could enable more sustainable resource use in infrastructure construction may be of relevance also elsewhere. Not the least, since there are still many regions of the world where much of the infrastructure to provide basic services remains to be built (SDG6-7, SDG9, SDG11) a challenge that must be handled in parallel with efforts to reduce/erase the climate impact from infrastructure construction (in line with the Paris Agreement and SDG13)

The threat to climate change mitigation posed by the abundance of fossil fuels

ABSTRACTThis article analyses the trends in primary demand for fossil fuels and renewables, comparing regions with large and small domestic fossil fuel reserves. We focus on countries that hold 80% of global fossil fuel reserves and compare them with key countries that have meagre fossil fuel reserves. We show that those countries with large domestic fossil fuel reserves have experienced a large increase in primary energy demand from fossil fuels, but only a moderate or no increase in primary energy from renewables, and in particular from non-hydro renewable energy sources (NHRES), which are assumed to represent the cornerstone of the future transformation of the global energy system. This implies a tremendous threat to climate change mitigation, with only two principal mitigation options for fossil-fuelrich economies if there is to be compliance with the temperature goals of the Paris Agreement:(1) leave the fossil fuels in the ground; and(2) apply carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies.Combinations of these two options to exploit their respective possibilities synergistically will require strong initiatives and incentives to transform a certain amount of the domestic fossil fuel reserves (including the associated infrastructure) into stranded assets and to create an extensive CCS infrastructure. Our conclusion is that immediate and disruptive changes to the use of fossil fuels and investments in non-carbon-emitting technologies are required if global warming is to be limited to well below 2\ub0C. Collective actions along value chains in business to divert from fossil fuels may be a feasible strategy.Key policy insights. The main obstacle to compliance with any reasonable warming target is the abundance of fossil fuels, which has maintained and increased momentumtowards new fossil-fuelled processes.. So far, there has been no increase in the share of NHRES in total global primary energy demand, with a clear decline in the NHRES share in India and China.. There is an immediate need for the global community to develop fossil fuel strategies and policies.. Policies must account for the global trade flow of products that typically occurs from the newly industrialized fossil fuel-rich countries to the developed countries

Deployment of BECCS in basic industry - a Swedish case study

This work discusses the potential for deployment of BECCS in Swedish basic industry as part of the portfolio of technologies and policy measures required to meet near zero emission targets. Since existing policy measures are too weak to incentivize investments in CCS/BECCS at a scale that would be in parity with the emission reductions required, and, since measures that could stimulate reductions in biogenic carbon dioxide emissions are still absent, we also explore key steps required to lay the groundwork for CCS/BECCS deployment. This includes; e.g., RD&D funding, governmental risk sharing and state funding to 1st of the kind projects, support for niche markets (e.g. through public/private procurement), market making for zero- (and/or negative-) CO2 products, and adaptation of infrastructure policies

Pathways for Low-Carbon Transition of the Steel Industry-A Swedish Case Study

The concept of techno-economic pathways is used to investigate the potential implementation of CO(2)abatement measures over time towards zero-emission steelmaking in Sweden. The following mitigation measures are investigated and combined in three pathways: top gas recycling blast furnace (TGRBF); carbon capture and storage (CCS); substitution of pulverized coal injection (PCI) with biomass; hydrogen direct reduction of iron ore (H-DR); and electric arc furnace (EAF), where fossil fuels are replaced with biomass. The results show that CCS in combination with biomass substitution in the blast furnace and a replacement primary steel production plant with EAF with biomass (Pathway 1) yield CO(2)emission reductions of 83% in 2045 compared to CO(2)emissions with current steel process configurations. Electrification of the primary steel production in terms of H-DR/EAF process (Pathway 2), could result in almost fossil-free steel production, and Sweden could achieve a 10% reduction in total CO(2)emissions. Finally, (Pathway 3) we show that increased production of hot briquetted iron pellets (HBI), could lead to decarbonization of the steel industry outside Sweden, assuming that the exported HBI will be converted via EAF and the receiving country has a decarbonized power sector

Roadmap for Decarbonization of the Building and Construction Industry - A Supply Chain Analysis Including Primary Production of Steel and Cement

Sweden has committed to reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2045. Around 20% of Sweden\u27s annual CO(2)emissions arise from manufacturing, transporting, and processing of construction materials for construction and refurbishment of buildings and infrastructure. In this study, material and energy flows for building and transport infrastructure construction is outlined, together with a roadmap detailing how the flows change depending on different technical and strategical choices. By matching short-term and long-term goals with specific technology solutions, these pathways make it possible to identify key decision points and potential synergies, competing goals, and lock-in effects. The results show that it is possible to reduce CO(2)emissions associated with construction of buildings and transport infrastructure by 50% to 2030 applying already available measures, and reach close to zero emissions by 2045, while indicating that strategic choices with respect to process technologies and energy carriers may have different implications on energy use and CO(2)emissions over time. The results also illustrate the importance of intensifying efforts to identify and manage both soft and hard barriers and the importance of simultaneously acting now by implementing available measures (e.g., material efficiency and material/fuel substitution measures), while actively planning for long-term measures (low-CO(2)steel or cement)