Decarbonizing industry: Extending the scope of mitigation options

Industry is responsible for about 25% of EU final energy demand and uses gas, electricity, coal, and oil as the dominant energy carriers making industry critical for the achievement of European climate goals. Analyses show that the industry sector is unlikely to meet ambitious climate mitigation targets without a major change in technologies used and the accompanying policy frame. This contribution presents a transition scenario for the EU28 that achieves an ambitious reduction in GHG emissions of 70% by 2050 compare to 2015 for the industrial sector. The shown transition scenario contains different mitigation options: incremental and BAT energy efficiency improvements, advanced energy- and resource efficient processes, fuel and feedstock switching (e.g. towards renewable electricity or hydrogen) recycling and re-use, as well as material efficiency and substitution.