Background/Objectives

Signatories of the Paris Agreement are set to miss their climate targets. The net-zero pledges announced to date across many countries and private industries are insufficient to achieve carbon neutrality, which requires implementation of far-reaching and significantly scaled-up climate-positive actions. All technology options that pertain to deep decarbonization and carbon removal must be part of the mitigation portfolio. Transformational action plans must be established in which every individual/organization around the globe is an actor of positive changes in relation to net-zero goals. Such plans must not only involve long-lasting governmental policy support but also encourage voluntary efforts to boost innovations, investments, initiatives, and behavioral changes.

Approach/Activities

Recognition of these voluntary efforts is made quantifiable with the concept of carbon handprint, which measures the impacts of climate-positive changes created by individual or collective actions relative to business as usual. This talk will present a carbon handprint perspective to characterize the environmental benefits of hybrid energy systems—a widely applicable solution to a clean energy future by leveraging the strengths of a portfolio of low-carbon energy sources—that provide heat and electricity to industrial processes. First, the carbon handprint concept and its assessment method will be introduced and compared with carbon footprint. Next, drawing on a recent case study about a US chemical facility’s voluntary initiative to explore replacing its fossil fuel–based cogeneration infrastructure with a clean energy–powered hybrid energy system, several technically viable scenarios will be evaluated—especially those with nuclear reactors and solar photovoltaics—to illustrate how the positive-thinking handprint approach helps inform the search for widespread influence pathways. Finally, knowledge gaps in the case study will be identified, and opportunities to scale up the handprint-based analysis will be outlined with consideration of an expanded role of hybrid energy systems in fulfilling climate objectives.

Results/Lessons Learned

This talk aims to make a call for voluntary climate-positive actions from a carbon handprint perspective and to present a case study of such actions for industrial decarbonization using hybrid energy systems. Among the five scenarios considered, cogeneration powered by advanced small modular nuclear reactors would create the largest internal and external carbon handprints in the case study. It is envisioned that like-minded decision makers in the energy sector and beyond will adopt this perspective and act synergistically to enhance their environmental stewardship through voluntary actions and make greater contributions to the planet’s climate future.