Net zero economy
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Achieving a Net-Zero Economy: Insights and Challenges
Introduction to Net-Zero Economy
A net-zero economy aims to balance the amount of greenhouse gases emitted with the amount removed from the atmosphere, achieving a state where the net emissions are zero. This ambitious goal is crucial for mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable development. Various sectors, including supply chain management, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and energy systems, play pivotal roles in this transition.
Decarbonization in Supply Chain Management
Research in supply chain management highlights the importance of decarbonization, emission control, and life cycle analysis in achieving net-zero goals. Digitalization, circular economy practices, and resource optimization are strongly associated with net-zero objectives1. These practices help in reducing emissions and improving efficiency across the supply chain, making it a critical area for achieving net-zero targets.
Role of Resources in SMEs
In SMEs, the adoption of net-zero practices is influenced by tangible resources, human skills, and intangible resources such as organizational culture and knowledge management. Intangible resources have a more substantial impact on sustainable net-zero economy implementation, emphasizing the need for a sustainability culture and effective knowledge management2. The integration of Industry 4.0 technologies can further enhance these efforts, leading to improved financial, environmental, and social performance.
Barriers to Net-Zero Economy
Achieving a net-zero economy involves overcoming significant barriers, including reliance on non-renewable fuels, economic constraints, and policy challenges. The use of plithogenic sets to analyze these barriers reveals the complex interdependencies among various obstacles, highlighting the need for coordinated efforts to address them3. Additionally, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented both challenges and opportunities for net-zero trajectories, particularly in emerging economies like India and South Africa4.
Decarbonizing Energy Systems
Energy systems are central to the net-zero transition, with significant emissions arising from energy use. Decarbonizing difficult-to-electrify sectors such as aviation, long-distance transport, and industrial processes like steel and cement production is essential. This requires integrating various energy sectors and industrial processes to achieve minimal emissions5. Sector coupling, which involves integrating energy-consuming sectors with the energy supply sector, is critical for deep decarbonization6.
Defining Net-Zero
The term "net zero" is often not well-defined, leading to knowledge and process gaps. Clear definitions at appropriate scales, such as single-building or urban-system scales, are necessary. These definitions should include explicit system boundaries, emission scopes, and life-cycle energy and greenhouse gas emissions7. Establishing common frameworks and languages across disciplines is also crucial for effective policy analysis and implementation8.
Transition to Electric Vehicles
The transition to electric vehicles (EVs) is a significant step towards a low-carbon economy. However, this transition involves challenges related to the extraction of raw materials, manufacturing, and end-of-life applications of EV batteries. A circular economy approach, focusing on recycling and repurposing, is essential for sustainable EV adoption9.
Economic Growth and R&D
Economic growth, financial development, and R&D expenditures play vital roles in achieving net-zero targets. Historical data analysis shows that while financial development and energy consumption can lead to environmental degradation, R&D expenditures help reduce CO2 emissions. Policies leveraging financial development and R&D can support the transition to a net-zero economy10.
Conclusion
Achieving a net-zero economy is a multifaceted challenge that requires coordinated efforts across various sectors and disciplines. Decarbonizing supply chains, leveraging resources in SMEs, overcoming barriers, and integrating energy systems are critical steps. Clear definitions, circular economy practices, and strategic use of economic growth and R&D are essential for this transition. By addressing these challenges and harnessing opportunities, we can move towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future.
Sources and full results
Most relevant research papers on this topic
Net-zero economy research in the field of supply chain management: a systematic literature review and future research agenda
Digitalisation, circular economy, and resources optimization practices are strongly associated with net-zero economy goals in supply chain management.
Systematic ReviewFrom resources to sustainability: a practice-based view of net zero economy implementation in small and medium business-to-business firms
Intangible resources, such as culture and organizational learning, have a greater impact on sustainable net zero economy adoption and improved financial, environmental, and social performance in small- and medium-sized businesses.
Breaking barriers toward a net‐zero economy
To achieve a net-zero economy, nations must overcome external, economic, policy, and technological barriers, while balancing energy needs with existing sources.
BRICS and the Race to Net-Zero Emissions by 2050: Is COVID-19 a Barrier or an Opportunity?
COVID-19 presents both challenges and opportunities for BRICS to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, but governments must address barriers and seize opportunities to achieve this goal.
Meta-AnalysisNet-zero emissions energy systems
Achieving a net-zero emissions energy system requires research, development, and integration of disparate energy sectors and industrial processes, with current technologies showing promise.
Highly CitedModelling Net Zero and Sector Coupling: Lessons for European Policy Makers
Net Zero targets require sector coupling, integrating energy consuming sectors and optimizing energy supply, and can be clarified through appropriate energy system modeling.
Identifying Knowledge and Process Gaps from a Systematic Literature Review of Net-Zero Definitions
A clear net-zero definition is needed at appropriate scales, with governance, design, measurement, verification, and circular framework being key areas for achieving net zero.
Systematic ReviewA Net Zero Principles Framework : Fundamental Questions for Public Policy Analysis
A Net Zero Principles Framework can help understand the policy, political economy, and societal consequences of net zero actions, enabling co-creation across research, policy, and industry communities.
Towards a circular and low-carbon economy: Insights from the transitioning to electric vehicles and net zero economy
A low-carbon circular business model for electric vehicle batteries must address issues like ethical concerns, manufacturing, and distribution, while ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.
Highly CitedUK's net-zero carbon emissions target: Investigating the potential role of economic growth, financial development, and R&D expenditures based on historical data (1870–2017)
Financial development and energy consumption contribute to environmental degradation, while R&D expenditures help reduce CO2 emissions, suggesting policy prescriptions using financial development and R&D expenditures as key tools to meet the UK's net-zero emissions target by 2050.
Observational StudyHighly Cited