The Renewable Carbon Initiative is an interest group made up of more than 30 well-known companies from the chemical and materials industries. The initiative was founded in 2020 with the aim of supporting both industries in the enormous challenge of meeting the European Union's climate targets and society's expectations in terms of sustainability. To achieve this, the industry must do more than simply use energy from renewable sources. Since decarbonization is not an option for the chemical and materials industry, as carbon is its indispensable raw material, alternative strategies are needed. Today, the RCI has published a comprehensive strategy paper on how renewable carbon can be harnessed as the basis for sustainable carbon cycles.
The RCI is addressing the core of the climate issue: 72% of man-made climate change is directly attributable to fossil carbon extracted from the earth. In order to tackle climate change as quickly as possible and achieve the human goal of lower greenhouse gas emissions, the extraction of fossil carbon must be reduced as quickly as possible and on a large scale.
In the energy and transport sectors, this means ambitiously and rapidly expanding renewable energies, hydrogen and electromobility in order to "decarbonize" both sectors. The EU has already set ambitious targets for this and will continue to do so - one example is the recently launched "Fit for 55" package of measures.
So far, however, other sectors of the economy that use fossil carbon have been largely ignored in these measures. The chemical and materials industry has a high carbon demand and cannot do without carbon in principle, as most products are carbon-based. Unlike the energy sector, these industries cannot be decarbonized as they are dependent on carbon molecules. The equivalent of decarbonizing the energy industry through renewable energy in the chemical and downstream materials industries can therefore only be achieved with renewable carbon. Both strategies rely on no longer extracting fossil carbon from the earth and can therefore be summarized under the term "defossilization".
In order to end the chemical industry's dependence on fossil carbon, the question of which alternative carbon sources could be used in the future must be answered. Rapid developments in the life sciences and chemistry have opened up new renewable and increasingly affordable sources of carbon that provide alternatives for a more sustainable chemicals and materials economy. These alternative sources include biomass, CO2 utilization and recycling. They are summarized under the term "renewable carbon". This forms a guard rail to which the entire sector can orient itself without being too restricted. The systematic switch to renewable carbon not only requires considerable effort on the part of the industry, but must also be flanked by appropriate political framework conditions, technological development and extensive investment. To achieve the phase-out of fossil carbon quickly and on a large scale, political support is needed. The focus should be on responsible carbon management that respects the planet's limits and benefits society as a whole. This requires a comprehensive carbon management strategy that also takes into account specific regional and application-related issues in order to select the most sustainable carbon source from the available alternatives. In this way, the complex transition from fossil carbon to renewable energy and renewable carbon can be achieved in all industries.
The RCI has formulated eleven recommendations to policymakers on renewable carbon, carbon management, transforming chemical infrastructure and converting biofuel plants into chemical suppliers. The position paper Renewable Carbon as a Guiding Principle for Sustainable Carbon Cycles is now available to download free of charge in a short and a long version.
The overarching goal of the RCI is the complete replacement of fossil carbon with renewable carbon. This is carbon that comes from alternative, above-ground sources such as biomass, CO2 and recycling. Only in this way can the chemical and materials industry become sustainable, climate-friendly and part of the circular economy and a sustainable future.
Link to download: https://renewable-carbon-initiative.com/media/library
