Mission Innovation (MI) is a global initiative founded by countries that are leaders in energy technologies1 on the occasion of the 2015 UN Climate Change Conference in Paris. Its goal is to combat climate change in cooperation with private investors and to push the development of clean energy technologies forward. This collaboration between public and private sectors is designed to promote knowledge transfer, forge research partnerships and build trial systems. Austria joined the initiative in 2018. The Net-Zero Industries Mission (NZI), led by Austria together with Australia, is launching in 2022. China, the European Union, Germany, Finland and the United Kingdom are core members.
The aim is to mobilise investments to drive forward the development of key technologies for the complete decarbonisation of industry. The NZI is designed to ensure that reliable, cost-effective and emission-free production is possible by 2030 in high-temperature processes in the steel, cement and chemical industries. Over this period, the participating countries want to develop and trial solutions with a degree of maturity of the technology of TRL 6 or higher. The climate-neutral production methods are expected to be scalable and able to compete with established technologies by 2050.
Objectives of the Net-Zero Industries Mission by 2030:
> Carrying out at least two large-scale demonstration projects for each field of innovation and each energy-intensive industry sector (steel, cement, chemicals)
> Developing new, low-carbon breakthrough technologies for industrial manufacturing
> Reducing investment spending on innovative low-carbon technologies by more than 15 %
The key fields of innovation in industrial manufacturing include optimising processes and increasing efficiency, switching to new fuels and raw materials, direct electrification, CCS and CCU, digitalisation, flexibilisation, and sector coupling. The mission intends to connect and pool multinational research and technology development and give it a targeted focus. A large part of this will involve promoting partnerships and technology transfer in order to get innovative technologies to market more rapidly, particularly in developing countries and emerging economies.
1 22 countries and the European Union are taking part in the global Mission Innovation initiative.
„Australia is supporting research, development, demonstration and early-stage commercialisation of low emissions technology through co‑investment with private sector. Under Australia’s Technology Investment Roadmap, we are prioritising technologies to reduce emissions from energy intensive industry like steel and aluminium, including through renewable energy and clean hydrogen production. Mission Innovation is important for connecting researchers and industry to work together to accelerate development of low emissions technologies. Co-leading the NZI Mission is an opportunity to cooperate, learn, and progress technology, sharing challenges and solutions.“
PETA OLESEN
Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources
Australian Government