The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research and Innovation has published a new report entitled ‘Research and Innovation for Climate Neutrality by 2050: Challenges, opportunities and the path forward’.
The aim of the report is to provide policy recommendations regarding the design, principles and solutions needed for a long-term, forward-looking R&I agenda to accelerate the transition to net-zero emissions. It focuses on areas where significant investments are needed today to achieve maturity, commercialisation, and adoption of key technologies in the coming 10-20 years.
The report advocates embracing a systemic approach by focusing on goal-oriented R&I interventions, as well as considering how systemic interactions of climate mitigation approaches can be better integrated in the development of R&I programmes. To that end, the report identifies three areas of focus for climate neutrality, to better integrate systemic interaction of climate mitigation approaches:
- Mobility – Built environment – Energy nexus
- Circularity – Industry – Carbon removals and capture nexus
- Agrifood – Carbon removals nexus
In addition, the report highlights some of the opportunities, barriers, and risks of general-purpose technologies (such as AI, synthetic biology, blockchain) in accelerating the net-zero transition. It also advocates the need for the EU to prioritise actions with key third countries to create competitive advantage across the international value chains emerging from the green transition.