The production of steel, concrete, fuel and agriculture chemicals is energy intensive. These industries critically rely on vast amounts of fossil fuels (coal, oil and gas) because the electricity grid doesn’t yet have enough capacity to distribute, store and supply renewables at scale.
Fossil resources are also locked into these industries, with supply chains relying on the chemistry of fossil fuels. During the manufacture of steel, for example, coal is heated without oxygen and converted into coke (another carbon-rich material) – that coke is used in blast furnaces to make molten iron which gets transformed into steel. Therefore, to limit climate change, these industries eventually need to be carbon free. But we do not have the time to make them completely emissions free before global temperatures get any higher.
