Signatories to decarbonisation initiative the Breakthrough Agenda have mapped out 25 actions to be taken by next year's UN Cop 28 climate summit, to speed the transition to a low-carbon economy.
The Breakthrough Agenda was launched at Cop 26, with three overarching goals — to "fast-track low-carbon transitions" in key emitting sectors this decade, to focus on "tipping points" whereby low-carbon or zero-emissions technologies become the cheapest and most accessible options, and to establish to track and measure the progress made. The group has 47 signatories, including Australia, China, the UAE, the European Commission and all G7 nations.
The actions focus on five sectors that make up more than half of global emissions — power, road transport, steel, hydrogen and agriculture — and are designed to reduce energy costs and improve food security. They include a common target date to phase out "polluting cars and vehicles, consistent with the Paris Agreement", strengthened financial and technical help for decarbonisation in developing and emerging economies and the use of private and public spending to "stimulate global demand for green industrial goods".
The group wants to increase deployment of essential infrastructure projects, "including at least 50 large scale net-zero emission industrial plants, at least 100 hydrogen valleys and a package of major cross-border power grid infrastructure projects". Common definitions for low-emission and near-zero emission steel, hydrogen and sustainable batteries must be developed, it said, and it will add the buildings and cement industries to the agenda next year.
A separate coalition — the Alliance for Industry Decarbonisation, which aims to scale back industrial emissions and speed up net zero ambitions — met today at Cop 27 to set out its implementation plan. This group, which includes the International Renewable Energy Agency, will target six areas in which to accelerate decarbonisation. These are renewables, green hydrogen, bioenergy with carbon capture, use and storage, heat process optimisation, human capital and finance.
The group has added 13 members, including Brazilian mining company Vale, Malaysian state-owned Petronas and Colombian state-owned Ecopetrol.
