Net-zero emission is expedient to discover new techniques and alternate energy like hydrogen.
HYDROGEN ‘S ROLE IN A NET-ZERO FUTURE
INTRODUCTION
Researchers/Scientists/world leaders are exploring to change of Carbon-free energy carriers. The efforts have got momentum after the Russian and Ukraine war which is still continuing. Its impact is severe on the energy supply and the consequent rise in prices has compelled the more environment-friendly energy substitute. Their concerted efforts discovered an alternative which is hydrogen. Hydrogen has an enormous prospect and capability as a carbon-free energy deliverer. The aspect of momentum behind this extensively applicable technology. Hydrogen could prove a course empowering role as a central role in serving the world to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. As a supplement to other technologies like renewable power and biofuels, hydrogen has the capability to decarbonize industries including steel, petrochemicals, fertilizers, heavy-duty mobility (on and off-road), maritime shipping, and aviation, in addition, to assisting flexible power generation (among other applications). Experts proclaim by 2050, hydrogen could contribute more than 20 percent of annual global emissions reductions. Hydrogen’s potential role in the broader energy transition is explored. After doing concerted efforts to discover, for example, the impact demand for hydrogen could reshape current power, gas, chemicals, and fuel markets; the need for scaling hydrogen production, particularly clean hydrogen (which is made with renewables or with measures to lower emissions); and forecasted it must happen in the coming decade to reach net-zero targets. The acceleration behind hydrogen has get momentum in the past year, a recently published perspective on the state of the hydrogen industry. Both investment and project development has heightened. But there is an investment gap that continues. We also observe how hydrogen could play a key role in a low-carbon future.
Part of the net-zero equation
By 2050, clean hydrogen could help abate seven gigatons of CO2 emissions annually, which is about 20 percent of human-driven emissions if the world remains on its current global-warming trajectory.1 Complementing other technologies, such as renewables and biofuels, hydrogen has the potential to decarbonize a variety of sectors, for example, industry (steelmaking, ammonia synthesis for fertilizer production); long-range ground mobility (as a fuel for heavy-duty trucks); maritime shipping and aviation (to produce synthetic fuels for vessels); and building heating. Hydrogen can also be used for flexible, long-term storage for power grids. Industry and transportation account for most of the hydrogen’s abatement potential, which has a cumulative emissions reduction upside of 80 gigatons of CO2 through 2050.
Investment is growing
More than 680 large-scale hydrogen projects have been announced globally, amounting to $240 billion in direct investments. The projects include giga-scale production, large-scale industrial usage, transport, and infrastructure. In Europe, which accounts for 314 of announced projects, hydrogen is expected to play a significant role in meeting decarbonization targets, with usage across industrial applications, transportation, and power generation. Within Asia, China accounts for roughly half the total announcements. Among announced projects in China, most focus on hydrogen use in transportation. In North America, hydrogen production should help boost the region’s domestic supplies of low-carbon energy across multiple applications. Besides, hydrogen export hubs have been declared in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania. These hubs could feed the growing demand in Asia and Europe.
Capability to make a cleaner future
Most hydrogen is now formed with fossil fuels, named grey hydrogen. Satisfying hydrogen’s potential as a decarbonization tool will require a significant scale-up of clean hydrogen, which can be produced with renewables (described as green hydrogen) or with fossil fuels together shifts to suggestively lower emissions, such as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (often called blue hydrogen). Demand for clean hydrogen could grow to about 660 million metric tons annually by 2050. Total planned production for green and blue hydrogen through 2030 has reached more than 26 million metric tons annually a figure that has roughly four-fold since 2020. The production costs of clean hydrogen are expected quickly fall in the ensuing decade. At a production cost of approximately $2 per kilogram, clean hydrogen could become cost competitive in many applications.
Greening steel
Steel is one of the world’s highest CO2-emitting industries because. of the use of coking coal in the production process, steel accounts for about 8 percent of global annual emissions. While it will require an initial investment to make the transition, hydrogen-based steelmaking has the potential to greatly reduce the industry’s footprint: steel is expected to generate about 8 percent of clean-hydrogen demand in 2030 but could account for nearly 20 percent of emissions avoided via hydrogen that year. Above 50 steelmaking projects with green-hydrogen drives have been publicized worldwide, with Europe as a center of promotive growth.
Inadequate investment
Despite hydrogen’s momentum, a significant investment gap exists for it to fully contribute to decarbonization. Reaching a roadmap to net zero will require additional direct investments of $460 billion by 2030 and the gap between the $240 billion of proclaimed projects and $700 billion in required investments. The investment gap can be broken down into three categories:
Production. Clean-hydrogen production has the highest amount of declared investments; however, it’s also the segment with the biggest investment necessities. The current investment gap is almost $150 billion through 2030.
Transmission, distribution, and storage. Investments in this part of the value chain are crucial to empowering an approach to cost-competitive hydrogen supplies, for example, connecting the regions with the lowest production costs to demand hubs, developing refueling infrastructure for vehicles, or building pipelines to supply industrial plants. Still, the investment gap of above $165 billion remains.
End-use applications. Achieving projected demand in hydrogen’s various end-use applications, including steel production and transportation, will require additional investments of $145 billion, with the largest complete gap in agility. New industry applications such as steel will require significant investments—about $35 billion—for outlays like new plants. However, steel is also one of the most advanced segments among announced investments, with about half of the required investments announced. Now the question arises of which way leaders could help exploit hydrogen’s potential in the net-zero economy. For hydrogen to be a pivotal player in the energy transition, scale-up over the next decade is judgment critical. Policymakers and business leaders can consider actions in three key areas:
Creating demand. Companies could play a role by tracking industry-wide transition promises while policymakers could create incentives—for instance, by introducing direct support mechanisms and mandating quotas or targets.
Developing infrastructure. Up-front investments are required to develop large-scale infrastructure that empowers circulation, such as pipelines and refueling infrastructure.
Scaling up production. Hydrogen demand will reach mass-market adoption only when low-cost clean-hydrogen supply is accessible. This will require a scale-up in electrolysis capacity and add-on renewable-energy capacity, and the build-out of carbon capture, utilization, and storage infrastructure. The sooner these investments in giga-scale production are made, the earlier hydrogen will reach cost cheapness.
The fusion energy help decarbonize the power system.
Greener and cleaner. The steep price of natural gas is making it costlier to produce hydrogen from fossil fuels, accelerating investment in green hydrogen. Since the war in Ukraine began, natural-gas prices have jumped by more than 70%, making it cheaper to produce green hydrogen (also called clean hydrogen), according to Carbon Tracker, a UK-based think tank. Since February 2022, governments and companies in 25 countries have earmarked $73 billion in green-hydrogen production.
Green-hydrogen goals. India, the third largest global producer of greenhouse-gas emissions, is aiming to become a major producer of green hydrogen. Experts tout green hydrogen’s potential to decarbonize steel mills, petroleum refineries, and other heavy industries. But currently, India produces very little of the fuel India’s net-zero ambitions are being backed by prominent business leaders, including one who has promised to invest $70 billion to develop green hydrogen and other clean-energy technologies. In 2050, hydrogen could contribute more than 20% of annual global emissions reductions.
Clean-hydrogen demand. Hydrogen could play a key role in helping the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050. Most hydrogen today is produced with fossil fuels. However, fulfilling hydrogen’s potential as a tool for decarbonization will require a significant scale-up of clean hydrogen. Demand for clean hydrogen could grow to approximately 660 million metric tons annually by 2050. and the Hydrogen Council finds.
Accelerating investment in hydrogen. Investment in hydrogen is ramping up, too. Around the world, more than 680 large-scale hydrogen projects have been announced, totaling $240 billion in investment. Europe accounts for 314 of the announced projects, and China accounts for roughly half of those in Asia. Hydrogen export hubs have also been announced in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania. We can show the outsize role that hydrogen could play in helping the world reach a low-carbon future.
The future of sustainable air travel
As millions prepare to travel during the holiday season, the airline industry faces growing pressure to quicken its sustainability efforts from environmentally minded passengers. While many organizations have committed to reaching net zero, difficulties stand in the way. By focusing on high-priority areas, travel companies can catalyze meaningful outcomes for the environment and gain a competitive advantage over peers. Before we board our next flight, explore these insights to learn more about a greener future for air travel.
Leading through turmoil
The way we think about how to handle a crisis is outdated. We learned this lesson the hard way. We had to learn to truly change some pretty fundamental things about ourselves. Deliberate calm, inspired by this intense period of self-reflection, introduces a crucial leadership practice for the modern era: the ability to calmly stake stock of a crisis situation, overcome an initial reactive response, and recognize whether or not to use moves from an established crisis policy, workfolks, and procedures.
Scaling maintainable aviation fuel now for clean skies future
The move to sustainable aviation is now imperative.
Global warming is one of the greatest challenges of our time. As the world comes together to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees compared with pre-industrial levels, the WEF’s Clean Skies for Tomorrow (CST) Coalition has set out to identify and address the challenges of decarbonizing the aviation sector. Closing the gap to a 1.5-degree trail as outlined in the Paris Agreement will require rapid decarbonization in every industry. Transportation which backs nearly a quarter of total energy-related CO2 emissions is dwindling behind, while other sectors are on track to meet EU climate targets. The time to act is now. As travel and tourism ramp up, aviation will again produce about 3 percent of total carbon emissions, plus other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. Hybrid-electric and hydrogen-powered aircraft could help the industry reach the next proficiency horizon, but developing them could take ten to 20 years, and the technology will be initially limited to smaller aircraft.
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About Clean Skies for future
To reduce the industry’s carbon emissions, the CST Coalition’s leaders aim to scale the most promising option: sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Connected from renewable feedstocks, such as municipal waste, agricultural residues, and waste lipids. SAF has already fueled over a quarter million commercial flights. Besides, it is fully likeminded with existing aircraft and fuel infrastructure. Truly, a transition to SAF is in reach: enough feedstock will likely be available to fuel all aviation by 2030. Heighten production will need the industry to scale new technologies and work on less-binding block assets because their availability regulates the ability to make products. To produce commercial quantities of power-to-liquid fuels or e-fuels that are made only from CO2 and green electricity, technology will need to mature, and above renewable electricity must be accessible. In 2019, fewer than 200,000 tons of SAF were produced globally, a tiny fraction of just 300 million tons of jet fuel used by viable airlines. If declared SAF projects are finished in the next few years, capacity will scale to at least four million tons about 1 percent of global jet fuel demand in 2030. In the near term, hydro-processed esters and fatty acids fuels (produced from waste lipids) will sponsor most of the capacity buildup, though smaller companies are now testing and refining substitutes serve as a path but it is time-consuming.
Travel, Logistics & Transport Infrastructure Practice
As the SAF industry modernizes, costs will fall. Facilities will scale, technologies will mature, and inputs such as green electricity will become cheap. There is no silver bullet, however, no single feedstock or production pathway will be practical in every geography or yield enough SAF to meet all demand. If the costs fall, SAF will near surely continue more expensive to produce than fossil fuel. To make SAF sparingly viable and scale production, several advances will be required: a supportive regulatory framework, measures to stimulate demand from corporate and private customers, and pioneering ways to finance the change. The CST Coalition is debating how to meet these challenges and help aviation earn its right to keep growing. Stakeholders that propose to conduct business as usual and wait for a technological wonder must change their mindset. The long-term effects of climate change are already underway.
CEOs can square resilience with net-zero promises
Amid unrest on the path to net zero, leaders will have to be much agiler to balance resilience with an energy future that is secure, affordable, and clean. Five actions can help. What a difference a year makes. In November 2021, business leaders showed up in force in Glasgow at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), pledging to take on the challenge of reaching net-zero greenhouse-gas-emission goals by 2050. While no one believed that the path to net zero would suddenly become easy, vows made to target nearly 90 percent of CO2 emissions for reduction beckoned that the private sector was truly involved. The major new headwinds began churning: surging inflation, the war in Europe, energy insecurity, and a potential global recession. Still, governments pressed ahead, passing major climate legislation packages in Europe and the United States. Above 3,000 companies have made promises on net-zero roadmaps. At the time of COP26, a perspective on the requirements needed to secure a net-zero carbon emission transition. It was clear, given the challenges of deploying capital at scale, managing economic disruptions, and scaling up supply chains and infrastructure, that the road would not be linear and would include slowdowns and backstepping. In control theory, backstepping is a technique developed circa 1990 by Petar V. Kokotovic and others for designing stabilizing controls for a special class of nonlinear dynamical systems. These systems are built from subsystems that radiate out from a complex subsystem that can be stabilized using some other method.
Because of this recursive&&& structure, the designer can start the design process at the known-stable system and "back out" new controllers that progressively stabilize each outer subsystem. The process terminates when the final external control is reached. Hence, this process is known as backstepping.
&&& The term recursive describes a function or method that repeatedly calculates a smaller part of itself to arrive at the final result. It is similar to iteration, but instead of repeating a set of operations, a recursive function accomplishes repetition by referring to itself in its own definition. While the concept of recursive programming can be difficult to grasp initially, mastering it can be very useful. Recursion is one of the fundamental tools of computer science. Ultimately, sustainable systems are more value-creating than traditional ones. But countries and companies must balance trade-offs among net-zero vows, affordability for citizens, and security of energy and materials supply. As disruptions have intensified, the moment confronts CEOs—an organization’s ultimate integrator—with a devilish duality. As net-zero has become an organizing principle for business, executives are on the spot to lay out credibly how they will deliver a transition to net zero while building and reinforcing resilience against the certain volatility of ongoing economic and political shocks. The zigs and zags of present conditions will lure some leaders with exclusive choices doubling down on fossil fuels, for example, at the expense of new and emerging renewable technologies. Leaders will face multiple calls for their attention, and concerns about how fast to drive sustainability (Sustainability is the practice of using natural resources responsibly, so they can support both present and future) agenda forward. As net-zero has become an organizing principle for business, executives are on the spot to lay out credibly how they will deliver their transition to net zero while in chorus building and reinforcing resilience against the certain volatility of ongoing economic and political shock.
We believe that the right response to such challenges has always been a matter of “and,” not “or”—that is, sustaining focus on the long term while adjusting in the face of present conditions rather than opting for one or the other. A resilient stance, being prepared to withstand shocks and poised to hasten into a changed reality, allows companies to weather not just the current moment but also the future storms that are likely to come their way in a world of rising risks. The task is neither simple nor easy. Therefore, leaders prepare to amass in Egypt for the 2022 UN Climate Change Conference (COP27), there is also good news: today’s reality is that sustainability, economic competitiveness, affordability, and national security merge as never before. To make the most of the situation, CEOs can shape strategy around resilience now to tap value-creating businesses tomorrow as the world continues to head toward net zero in the long run. Some core actions to help meet the dual necessities at the heart of a new sustainability strategy. The way to net zero was always going to be fraught with complexities. Recently, several “weather fronts” have emerged, posing significant challenges to leaders across both the private and public sectors.
Energy availability and security
The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the resulting energy crisis in Europe are reminders that, basically, disruption in energy markets can wreak havoc on the global economy. To address this, countries are improving the use of fossil fuels, including coal and gas, and spreading the life of conservative energy infrastructure, which is under growing pressure. Physical risks are thriving. Europe saw a record-breaking heat wave this summer. Floods distressed Pakistan this autumn, and tropical storms raged across Japan, Korea, and China. In the US, Texas saw a first-time grid failure in 2021, with a near miss in California this year. There are important choices to be made, some of which need trade-offs between climate mitigation and climate adaptation—for example, rebuilding versus relocating and investing in cooling versus keeping energy consumption down all of which happen within a limited “envelope” of infrastructure funding.
Affordability
Prices are rising across the globe, driven by the energy crisis in Europe, the growing food crisis resulting from the invasion of Ukraine, and a recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic that has been faster than expected, and has put pressure on supply chains. The outlook is gloomily recessionary. There is a growing perception that net zero comes at the expense of affordability, with a zero-sum trade-off. The universal problems of supply chain and talent lacks confuse the equation, particularly as deployment for the new assets and infrastructure needed for the net-zero transition pick up. This could result in price spikes for the key inputs needed for the net-zero transition. Companies also face growing challenges in securing the parts, labor, and specialized skills they need to execute net-zero pledges. From heat pumps to recycled textiles and insulation installers to carbon managing data scientists, companies are struggling to match supply to customer demand.
Governance and regulation
A key principle of any orderly transition to meeting net-zero goals is signifying ongoing governance and cooperation among the public- and private-sector institutions, meeting commitments, and maintaining public support for progress toward cutting greenhouse gases. The war in Ukraine has already reduced the potential for such cooperation. The US is seeing growing backlash against standardized environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting requirements and cynicism of ESG funds that some criticize as punishing fossil-fuel producers and aching local economies. The outlook for aligned standards, requirements and public support is becoming murkier. There is an increasingly popular view that leaders will need to navigate a zero-sum trade-off between addressing climate action headwinds and sticking to their pledges for achieving an orderly net-zero transition. However, while the path to net zero will not be a straight line, and some regions will step back pledges for the short term, the long-term trajectory remains intact. More important, these gaps also create opportunities—and imperatives. We believe that the potential is great to shape a resilient sustainability strategy that creates a virtuous cycle of managing short-term shocks; boosting prospects for an affordable, clean, and secure energy future; and improving the long-term competitiveness and value creation of companies.
This is because competitors may be tempted to pause during this period of turmoil. That creates a chance for those who stay the course to gain strategic distance: Energy independence via accelerated use of renewables and clean power and capture of the full potential of energy efficiency and distributed electricity. Varying the energy supply with renewables, green hydrogen, and green power promotes national energy security and economic keenness. In Europe, the invasion of Ukraine and the effort to develop a future free of dependence on Russian gas has prompted Europe to raise its commitment to renewables. Truly, energy market resiliency must be built together, for example, by satisfying the firming of capacity in power markets as the share of sporadic power generation grows. Even prior to the invasion of Ukraine, industrial policy across the larger European economies was focusing on clean-energy tech as a source of national affordability. Examples include European clean-tech export policies, support for rare-earth minerals needed for new climate tech, and national funding to drive local new-energy industrial growth (such as the US Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act).
Companies that operate in this space or serve those in it have clear long-term growth prospects. There are important choices to be made, some of which entail trade-offs between climate mitigation and climate adaptation—rebuilding versus relocating, investing in cooling versus keeping energy consumption down—and all of which occur within a limited “envelope” of infrastructure funding. New value from existing systems. It is becoming rising to seem that it may be possible to adapt for a new purpose existing methods of carbon-intensive production with extra enabling technologies to future-proof them for a sustainable future. Numerous examples—such as retrofitting (Retrofitting is the addition of new technology or features to older systems. Retrofits can happen for a number of reasons, for example with big capital expenditures existing industrial production facilities for carbon capture, use, and storage (CCUS); using hydrogen blends in methane carriers, and employing direct air capture (DAC)—are emerging to lower carbon intensity and transform existing systems into cleaner alternatives. Owners and operators of this infrastructure that invest in future-proofing through CCUS, DAC, or other tech stand to make significant gains. Repurposing rather than stranding these assets will not just enable affordability and system resiliency but also provide incumbents with greater confidence that decarbonizing their legacy assets is feasible.
Sustainable materials transition. The energy transition requires the transition of a material. Projected electric-vehicle demand, for example, will raise demand for cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and rare-earth minerals, putting further upward pressure on pricing across these commodity classes. Commitments to decarbonize automotive, consumer goods, packaging, and other sectors are also already driving supply–demand shortages in aluminum, plastics, and steel. We expect, for example, a 50 to 60 percent shortage of same-cycled plastics compared with demand in 2030, driving significant green premiums. If supply eventually meets demand, early movers will most stand to gain. With the current commodity cycle at a peak, cash can be reinvested in nascent materials opportunities that will be in clear demand in the longer term.
New sources of capital. Investors and incumbents have started a new wave of capital deployment toward net zero, including investments in new materials, new climate tech, and more adaptive supply chains. These investments are increasingly following a “private equity plus” model, with heavily involved investors helping build new green challengers from the outset. Countries and regions with hard-to-abate sectors are also increasingly important sources of climate tech and transition capital as they seek to decarbonize while preserving economic growth. These ventures are in their early stages as voluntary and policy-driven demand materializes and grows. But they demonstrate that while there is some ESG-related backlash, a broader set of clean investments are continuing to grow.
Voluntary carbon market (VCM) development. A critical pillar of enabling net zero and financing asset decarbonization is the ability to value carbon with liquidity. VCM will be critical. Although the situation is unsettled now, we see expanded dialogue and more concrete actions toward establishing VCM at the country and private-financing levels. For example, several Southeast Asian governments are shaping national voluntary carbon exchanges, and company commitments to voluntary carbon have grown. Investors and incumbents have started a new wave of capital deployment towards net zero—including investments in new materials, new climate technologies, and more adaptive supply chains. These investments are increasingly following a “private equity plus” model, with heavily involved investors helping to build new green challengers from the outset.
Reshaped value chains and reindustrialized nations. In some developed economies, game-changing policies are supporting new net-zero value chain plays. The US Inflation Reduction Act commits $370 billion in climate spending, targeting the creation of new sustainable industries across the country and accelerating clean tech, such as green hydrogen. Another US legislative measure, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, is poised to prompt reindustrialization, replacing value chains based on internal-combustion engines with electric- and battery-based alternatives. In the European Union, the Fit for 55 and Repower EU packages will create new winners across industries and reform value chains in a way that brings affordability to the fore. New forms of public-private partnerships will therefore also need to take shape. Imparting more control within regions and individual countries will enable them to protect against price shocks for citizens. Pursuing these opportunities should create a virtuous cycle for economies among affordability, decarbonization, energy security, job creation, and resilience. Renewable energy is one obvious example with the potential to promote energy security, create high-quality jobs, and reduce emissions in tandem. New sources of capital and VCM could make sustainable investments more affordable, bringing them to market sooner, and successful delivery of these projects would in turn boost returns and attract further capital. Sustainable materials could facilitate the energy transition while creating new value from existing systems and infrastructure. These examples illustrate the power and possibility of the “and”—a flywheel-like effect that enables meeting security, socioeconomic, and sustainability goals in parallel.
Across these opportunities, incumbents are positioned to succeed more often than not. Every incumbent player, especially in hard-to-abate sectors, has two sets of opportunities: decarbonizing while extending fossil-fuel-based core business (potentially earning green premiums as a result, as early movers in sustainable materials already are) and building new sustainable businesses. Incumbents can use existing cash flows and strong balance sheets to fund new sustainable businesses that lay the foundation for future growth. They can afford to invest for the long haul and place bets across multiple new clean technologies—another advantage when the endpoint is clear but the precise path to get there is not. The pressure to demonstrate real progress and create true value through sustainability is growing. The world has, however, entered an era that is increasingly challenging for CEOs and business leaders to navigate. There is a new strategic paradigm—one with reasonable certainty of where the world needs to be in the medium and long term and tremendous volatility in terms of how and when it will get there. Leaders must build resilience to today’s shocks to build tomorrow’s champions. Some approaches will be easier than others and offer a good starting point.
Accelerate capital deployment with a private-equity mindset
Leading with resilience while navigating toward net zero means sharing early in the materials transition and green-business-building wave to secure exposure to promising innovations. Earlier-cycle investments have higher risk but also higher returns because they benefit from early policy funding, greater willingness for counterparties to participate, for example, through sustainable aviation fuel contracts, which guarantee demand from airlines that allows investment in supply, new talent, and the opportunity to gain first-mover advantage in nascent and emerging value chains. In many industries, there will be multiple sustainability winners. For example, we expect both hydrogen-fueled and electric vehicles to be part of the 2050 ground transport system. This is another reason to consider an investor mindset—spreading bets across multiple potential investments earlier. Companies can further manage their transition risk by aggressively pursuing operational decarbonization measures that already pay for themselves (for example, through energy efficiency) while making longer-term investments in sustainable infrastructure and building new businesses. Pursuing energy efficiency and rapidly scaling distributed clean heating (for example, via heat pumps) will become a critical lever in Europe to manage the energy crisis.
Play offense through a sustainable value-creation strategy
Two objectives should be paramount: to extend and decarbonize the core business and to build new sustainable businesses in reshaped value chains. This would represent an “Apollo 11 moment” in many industries—a moon shot requiring not just incremental improvements but a wholesale rethinking of how to build, operate, and maintain every sector of the economy. Leaders need to make quantum leaps to meet the moment, by getting smart on climate tech fast, engaging with the innovation ecosystem, and leveraging their engineering and business-building talent. Similarly, a focus on sustainability—and ESG measures, more broadly—is defensible, pragmatic, and needed. CEOs can articulate their approach to ESG topics proactively by focusing on resilience and value creation, not simply as part of the “right to play” and risk mitigation.
Go beyond net zero
CEOs should also look to make their company's net nature positive. Actions include moving ahead in the game on biodiversity, demonstrating stewardship of shared water and air resources, ensuring a responsible supply chain, and contributing to a just transition, among other steps. Adaptation investments to address physical risks will also be critical. Companies able to weather the storm, literally, will have a material advantage. In some cases, sustainability aims come into conflict, for example, lithium brine operations are less carbon intensive than hard-rock extraction but consume far more water. CEOs will need to weigh current trade-offs carefully and invest in innovation that meets multiple aims, “squaring the circle” in a gradually complex ecosystem. The bar is rising on sustainability; companies need to have a plan for these and other factors.
Build the partnership and ecosystem muscle
CEOs should realize that the challenge of maintaining resiliency while driving toward net zero is too great to go it alone. New public-private partnerships will be needed because many of the emerging energy and materials value chains will require full ecosystem development. The clean-fuel consortiums, such as those developing around hydrogen hubs, and shared CCUS networks. There are also opportunities to partner with competitors on shared tech road maps to mitigate tech risk and to better direct innovation funding.
Aggressively reskill leadership teams, boards, and frontline workers
As companies embrace a sustainable future, they will need new skills. Sustainable fashion, for example, requires fully rethinking design, manufacturing, procurement, marketing, and waste management processes while also better tracking carbon emissions and circularity. Talent across the organizations will need to reskill to meet these new demands. Companies need to identify the skills needed for their more sustainable business models and work toward acquiring them and building them internally. Navigating the current turbulent period for the net-zero agenda may require temporary responses that, in some cases, may look like setbacks. They need not be. CEOs who understand the virtues of strategic resilience know that addressing immediate hardship and building a sustainable future can and should be pursued at the same time. By upholding vision, moving nimbly, playing offense, and embracing opportunity instead of recoiling from risk, leaders can improve the future of their businesses and the planet. As millions prepare to travel during the holiday season, the airline industry faces growing pressure to accelerate its sustainability efforts from environmentally minded passengers. While many organizations have committed to reaching net zero, obstacles stand in the way. By focusing on high-priority areas, travel companies can catalyze meaningful outcomes for the environment and gain a competitive advantage over peers
CONCLUSION
It is impossible to attain a net-zero position by 2050. As the population will have to change our traditional strategy without exploring a suitable cheap alternative of energy. It will be possible with deep commitment and concerted efforts make possible to attain. The increasing potential of the green-premium value from sustainable materials as we have observed to leverage hydrogen‘s role in net-zero future possibilities. we have also secured the future of sustainable air travel as air travel becomes more affordable. We are very optimistic and hopeful that the collaboration is being seen now during COP27 and G20 by the world-level leadersT.