Future of CO₂-based Product Technology Unveiled at COP22

Today the Global CO2 Initiative announced major findings and recommendations from its Roadmap for the Global Implementation of Carbon Dioxide Utilization Technologies at the ICEF2016 Roadmap Launch Event at COP22 in Morocco. The Roadmap offers a market assessment and recommendations for the carbon-based products industry (CBPI). The report shows that through broad scale commercialization of products derived from CO₂ there are sizable market opportunities while mitigating CO₂ emissions.

“Our findings illustrate just how feasible carbon dioxide utilization technology is for meeting both economic and environmental objectives,” said Dr. Issam Dairanieh, CEO of CO2 Science, the research and development arm of the Global CO2 Initiative. “Our Roadmap identifies tangible actions we can take to further adopt these technologies on a global scale while expanding new opportunities among several markets and industries.”

Key findings from the Roadmap include:

• The commercialization of CO₂-based products will help mitigate emissions and represents an annual revenue opportunity greater than $800 billion.

• Four major markets prove to be scalable and have visible momentum:

– Building materials
– Chemical intermediates
– Fuels
– Polymers

• The carbon-based products industry has the potential to utilize seven billion metric tons of CO₂ emissions per year by 2030 — the equivalent of approximately 15 percent of annual global CO2 emissions.
• Some CO2-based products are commercially viable today and investment can be profitable without waiting for policy incentives.

To seize on CO₂-based products’ full potential and sizable role in reducing global CO₂ emissions while creating new business opportunities, the Roadmap recommends several strategic actions that can be taken across three dimensions: technology, markets and policy. The details behind each recommendation can be found in the Roadmap’s Executive Summary or www.globalco2initiative.org.

“The Roadmap provides a real sense of opportunity and hope for the world,” said Jeremy Oppenheim, Managing Partner at SystemiQ and member of the CO2 Sciences Advisory Board. “By showing how CO₂ can become a valuable feedstock in a wide range of products and deliver abatement at scale, the CO2 Sciences team have a game-changer on their hands. This is a market-based solution to our collective climate challenge.”

The Roadmap was developed by the Global CO2 Initiative in conjunction with the Innovation for Cool Earth Forum’s Roadmap Project, and with support from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization, the Lemelson Foundation and the RK Mellon Family Foundation.

About The Global CO2 Initiative

The Global CO2 Initiative was created to realize the ambitious goal of capturing 10% of global CO₂ emissions and transforming them into valuable products. CO2 Sciences, its innovative research and development platform, is structured to aggressively catalyze funding in carbon capture and use by granting up to $400 million over ten years to many qualified research applicants throughout the world. In parallel, the Global CO2 Initiative will accelerate the commercialization of CO₂-based products and services. It will use different financial vehicles to invest in companies, enabling them to grow market demand for CO2-based products.

Source: The Global CO2 Initiative, press release, 2016-11-16.