Since the global Industrial Revolution in 1850, humanity has built the modern society on fossil fuel energy. However, the price we pay for this has been natural disasters, with economic losses reaching 400 trillion yen over the past 50 years. Unless we not only reduce new CO₂ emissions (zero emissions) but also capture CO₂ already in the atmosphere (negative emissions), natural disasters caused by global warming will become even more severe.
Humanity is trying to transition from the current carbon economy (carbon-emitting society) to a clean economy by 2050. With the technologies already in use, a 2.8°C rise in temperature by 2050 is considered unavoidable, and there are high hopes for the emergence of new innovations to achieve the 1.5°C target adopted at COP26. In this regard, many private companies have already begun research and development, and many startups with unique technologies have emerged.
The core technology for negative emissions is CCUS (carbon capture, utilization, or storage), which is expected to help curb temperature rises by reducing the amount of carbon in the atmosphere. As Japan will be using coal-fired power generation, which has low unit costs and a stable supply, in addition to renewable energy, the development and widespread use of CCUS will be a trump card in achieving carbon neutrality.
With growing awareness of ESG and decarbonization, investors are highly interested in the financial impact of global warming, and companies are being asked to work on the TCFD. Governments, investors, and companies are finally coming together to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. Emerging markets in this field (renewable energy, CCUS, carbon credit trading, etc.) are expected to become growth industries over the next 30 years.
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