The Sustainable Industrial Revolution Is Just Getting Started
Heavy industries like shipping, steel and plastics have long opted out of climate action. That is starting to change.
By Patrick Sisson New York Times
Ben Schuler, founder and chief executive of the start-up Infinitum Electric, which makes electric motors that are half the size and weight of standard motors.Credit...Cindy Elizabeth for The New York Times
Heavy industry uses roughly 149 million terajoules of energy annually, or about 700 times more power than the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated. The sector’s sheer scale makes reducing its carbon emissions difficult.
It would require incredible amounts of heat and power for manufacturing and methods to store vast amounts of power for jets, tankers, and trucks. Trillions of dollars in global assets would need to be retired. And the main sectors in play — aviation, shipping, steel, plastics, aluminum, cement, chemicals and trucking — represent massive swaths of the economy, making it a political third rail of climate change action.
But a combination of policy work, technological leaps and industry collaborations has made previously improbable changes into rallying points for more action.
“You’ve actually got to move the whole economy,” said Helen Clarkson, the chief executive of Climate Group, a global nonprofit. “We don’t just get a free pass because it’s more difficult.”