3 hours ago
https://theconversation.com/decarbonisin...why-280677
EXCERPTS: The global conversation about net zero has been almost entirely about energy. This framing is essential, but it rests on an assumption so embedded it rarely gets examined: that the only thing fossil fuels give us worth worrying about is the energy released when we burn them.
Roughly 15-20% of all fossil fuel consumption is never burned at all. It is transformed into the physical fabric of modern life: plastics, polymers, fertilisers, adhesives, solvents and synthetic textiles. When these products are eventually incinerated, degraded or discarded, their carbon returns to the atmosphere, a contribution to global warming that is real, growing and almost entirely absent from mainstream net zero accounting.
As well as a green energy transition, the material transition needs to be sustainable. But three industries at the heart of this problem are often overlooked: chemical manufacturing, plastic polymers and construction. [...] The solution is not to eliminate carbon from industry altogether, but to stop treating fossil carbon as the default raw material.
[...] Used carefully, these carbon sources can help replace fossil fuel-based carbon in polymers, construction products, insulation materials and chemicals. Careful assessment of these alternatives will ensure they genuinely reduce emissions across a product’s full life cycle. .., Making this transition work requires six things to move together... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: The global conversation about net zero has been almost entirely about energy. This framing is essential, but it rests on an assumption so embedded it rarely gets examined: that the only thing fossil fuels give us worth worrying about is the energy released when we burn them.
Roughly 15-20% of all fossil fuel consumption is never burned at all. It is transformed into the physical fabric of modern life: plastics, polymers, fertilisers, adhesives, solvents and synthetic textiles. When these products are eventually incinerated, degraded or discarded, their carbon returns to the atmosphere, a contribution to global warming that is real, growing and almost entirely absent from mainstream net zero accounting.
As well as a green energy transition, the material transition needs to be sustainable. But three industries at the heart of this problem are often overlooked: chemical manufacturing, plastic polymers and construction. [...] The solution is not to eliminate carbon from industry altogether, but to stop treating fossil carbon as the default raw material.
[...] Used carefully, these carbon sources can help replace fossil fuel-based carbon in polymers, construction products, insulation materials and chemicals. Careful assessment of these alternatives will ensure they genuinely reduce emissions across a product’s full life cycle. .., Making this transition work requires six things to move together... (MORE - missing details)