May-2022

What is your Decarbonisation SCORE?

To simplify your journey to decarbonisation, our Decarbonisation SCORE methodology provides a roadmap to setting and delivering emissions reduction targets

Dan Carter
Wood

Article Summary

The challenge today to create a better tomorrow

In the Paris Agreement in 2015, governments acknowledged that their national climate targets at the time would not meet the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5ËšC. 2020 was the target year to submit long-term strategies and for emissions to reach a peak. 

COP26 reaffirmed commitments to global carbon reduction goals, with individual countries now asked to adopt more ambitious and stringent targets in order to achieve a scenario of less than 1.5ËšC global temperature rise, and to report on these targets by the end of 2022.

The recent UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report also stated that carbon reduction commitments made prior to COP26 were not enough to reduce the impacts of climate change to less than a 1.5ËšC average temperature rise, and would also make it harder post-2030 to limit the overall average temperature increase to less than 2ËšC (IPCC, 2022). However, the report also recognised that the costs of several low emissions technologies, which have seen significant investment over the last decade, including solar, wind and battery technology, have fallen and continue to fall.

Drivers to decarbonise

Scientific efforts to quantify the scale of the challenge have helped us to better understand the need for decarbonisation, whilst the urgency for action is now sharply in the minds of policy makers, shapers, and governments. This has led to pressure on organisations to build from multiple angles to create a more sustainable economic, environmental, and social pathway.

We are a world in transition. The momentum behind energy transition is accelerating. Many nations are setting out their ambitions, targets, and policies, and over 100 countries committed to cutting CO2 to net zero by 2050, representing 70% of the world economy (UN, 2020). Organisations and governments are responding to the need to change as well as pressure from global governments, investors, clients, and end users. The consensus at COP26 was that the progress made since 2015 has not been enough, and an unprecedented effort is required by countries to cut the level of emissions and get back on track. However, emissions are increasingly impacting the balance sheet with the growing development of carbon pricing, whether through emissions trading systems or carbon taxes.

Energy, heat production, and industrial processes account for more than half of global greenhouse gas emissions. The pathway to reducing the carbon emissions of extractive and process industries will need to leverage a breadth of solutions, but the applicable solution set will also differ, depending on geographies, enterprise portfolios, and the characteristics of individual assets. Innovative solutions need to be secure, scalable, and reliable, leaning on product and industry expertise to deliver a better world for the future.

Although these are drivers mostly affecting your bottom line, it is imperative to mention that these are not the only reasons why immediate action is recommended, but also the real threats climate change has on our world, cities, houses, families, and even our own lives. What is at stake cannot be understated. Climate change has the potential to bring about spiked prices in our food and a global rise in catastrophic storms, causing devastation to daily life. This problem is much bigger than business; it is also personal.

How to navigate your decarbonisation journey

The journey to decarbonisation is complex, and knowing where to start can be difficult. It is important to apply a structured process to be able to map out how your goals will be achieved and ultimately realise them.

To simplify this complex process, our experts created the Decarbonisation SCORE methodology, which provides a roadmap to setting and delivering emissions reduction targets. Using this methodology, our team can assess where clients are in their journey, then devise an actionable and implementable plan complete with progress reporting on how to make your objectives achievable.

Wood’s structured and dynamic process, as seen in Figure 1, brings together the breadth of our technical advisory, specialist domain knowledge, project and operations expertise, with a deep understanding of innovative technology solutions, as well as wide sector and global experience as a trusted thinking and delivery partner. Our team are also able to design your solution, help you implement the necessary changes, and monitor performance with real-time insight.

Where should you start?

Advise - get started, baseline your programme, and set targets

Knowing where to start can often be the biggest challenge. Understanding your drivers, changing policy, and subsidy landscapes, and baselining your current emissions are keys to success.

A strong foundation for any carbon reduction programme will consider the carbon life cycle of the feedstocks consumed, products produced, and quantification of individual emissions sources to identify and maximise the opportunities to reduce carbon emissions at the most efficient cost.

Working across a variety of sectors from upstream oil and gas through to refining, petrochemicals, and life sciences enables Wood’s experienced engineers within each sector to apply their knowledge to both carbon footprinting and life cycle analysis, as well as forming a sound basis for identification of carbon abatement opportunities.

Understanding your carbon footprint, corporate objectives, and how the markets you operate in may evolve is key to setting achievable carbon reduction goals. This could be against a series of interim milestones and time horizons as you approach the overall goal of meeting a net-zero objective.