"There's a relatively new word doing the rounds in sustainability research and policy: defossilization. Beyond expert circles, it isn't necessarily obvious that phasing out fossil fuels does not mean phasing out carbon. Under net-zero scenarios, carbon-based fuels are still needed, to provide power, for example, and for aviation. Carbon, currently often derived from fossil hydrocarbons, is also integral to everyday consumer products such as soaps and detergents, as well as medicines, fertilizers and plastics."
"Worldwide, demand for 'embedded' carbon - that found in chemicals - is expected to double by 2050, according to the nova-Institute, a green-energy research institute in Hürth, Germany (see go.nature.com/4jpx6qi). But this carbon cannot come from the usual sources, such as coal, natural gas and oil. These must remain in the ground, and this is where defossilization comes in. Defossilization means finding sustainable ways to make carbon-based chemicals."
Net zero requires phasing out fossil fuels but not eliminating carbon, because carbon is essential for power, aviation, soaps, detergents, medicines, fertilizers and plastics. Demand for embedded carbon in chemicals is projected to double by 2050, yet coal, oil and gas must remain in the ground. Defossilization seeks sustainable carbon sources such as atmospheric CO2, biomass, and carbon recovered from biological or industrial waste including used plastics and agricultural residues. In many uses the carbon will later return to the atmosphere through burning or biodegradation, ideally within circular processes that avoid net greenhouse-gas increases. Scaling defossilization poses scientific, industrial and policy challenges.
Read at Nature
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]