Concawe Review 29.2

The move towards climate neutrality is clearly on its way: last year, the European Commission launched its Green Deal; and Japan, the Republic of Korea and more than 100 other countries worldwide have made public commitments to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. These were followed by China which, in September last year, announced its plan for carbon neutrality by 2060. One of the first acts of President Biden was to recommit the USA to the Paris Agreement, and its administration has shown a desire for the USA to become a leader of the move.

This evolution shows the pertinence of the Low Carbon Pathways (LCP) project, which Concawe launched a few years ago to identify the opportunities and challenges for the refining industry to contribute to the evolution towards climate neutrality. This edition of the Concawe Review is composed of articles concerning recent studies from the LCP project. The first article summarises a literature review of commercial, near-term and emerging technologies for carbon capture and storage, which is key in every scenario to achieve climate neutrality. The second article investigates the feasibility and the impact on the European refining industry of three scenarios from A Clean Planet for all, the long-term strategy published by the European Commission.

The third article gives the main findings of the JEC Well-To-Wheels report v5—the latest update of the in-depth study performed with the Joint Research Centre (JRC) and EUCAR—which provides details of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with numerous combinations of fuels and powertrains. Finally, the initial phase of a research project commissioned by Concawe and conducted by Ricardo Energy & Environment is summarised in the fourth article. The study, conducted by Ricardo Energy & Environment, describes the technological and operational measures to decarbonise the maritime sector, and investigates the potential for alternative fuels and energy carriers.