Heavy industry key to carbon reduction

Governments must unlock the technological knowledge assets of carbon-intensive industries if they are to meet their climate change objectives.

This is the view of Ilian Iliev, chief executive of Cambridge IP and co-author of the ‘Who Owns Our Low Carbon Future?’ report published by Chatham House earlier this month.

According to Iliev, greater collaboration with heavy industry is required to help accelerate the commercialisation of energy-efficient technologies and ensure the world achieves its target of an 80 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

‘For many years we have seen oil and gas companies as the evil doers of the global capitalist system,’ said Iliev. ‘Whether or not you hold this view, the bottom line is that in a positive sense these companies own a lot of technology and knowledge that will be critical for the deployment of low-carbon technologies.’

The report documents the global research and development patterns of six technologies: biomass, wind, cleaner coal, carbon capture, concentrated solar thermal (CST) and solar photovoltaic (PV). It concludes that under current practices the technologies will not be ready in time to make a significant difference to the world’s climate-change agenda.