Have you started your net zero journey?

The latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report identifies the industrial sector as accounting for around a quarter of global emissions. Achieving net zero will be challenging and will require new production processes, low and zero emissions electricity, hydrogen, and, where necessary, carbon capture and storage, notes the Panel.

While the stark warnings contained with the IPCC report can make difficult reading – sometimes the challenge can seem so colossal it’s tricky to see how individual businesses can make a difference – the findings do show increasing evidence of climate action. Since 2010, the IPCC notes, there have been sustained decreases of up to 85% in the costs of solar and wind energy, and batteries. An increasing range of policies and laws have enhanced energy efficiency, reduced rates of deforestation and accelerated the deployment of renewable energy.

Here in the UK research from Make UK, the manufacturers’ organisation shows that almost two thirds (65%) of manufacturers have taken positive action towards their net zero target in the past 12 months, while 35% of businesses already have a fully formed net zero strategy in place and have started to implement it. The research - ‘COP26 6 Months On’ – shows 77% of companies working on energy efficiency followed by nearly half (48%) looking to optimise their production processes. A further 32% want to increase their resource efficiency by using or wasting less resources.

This could, says Make UK, be something as simple as moving production lines nearer to the exit, so forklift trucks move only a short distance to load up the final products, to introducing complex energy saving sensors across the whole of the production line and full-scale electrification of processes.

Looking specifically at the role robots and automation can play in flighting climate change, the International Federation of Robotics identified 13 of the 17 sustainable development goals set out by the United Nations SDGs, where the use of robots can help to create a better planet.

“The transformation on the way to a sustainable use of resources is proving robotics and automation to be key technologies,” says Dr Susanne Bieller, general secretary of the International Federation of Robotics. “Intelligent automation reduces production costs: This helps battery technology achieve a breakthrough in e-mobility for example or fuel cells production for hydrogen-power as an alternative to fossil energy. At the same time, highly efficient production technology reduces CO₂-emissions.”

Clean energy, industrial innovation and sustainable agriculture are just three examples which show how the use of robots contribute to achieve these UN sustainable development goals.