Renewable & circular future report published

The publication provides insight and addresses the key questions on how to develop global regulatory frameworks, connections between consumers and circular economies, how to lead a wider industrial emissions revolution, and how to create sustainable global mobility. Above all, The Change Book is an invitation to collaborate in expediting the development of new technologies needed for sustainable change.

Global ambition and commitments to tackle the climate crisis are on the rise, and the time to act and make a low-emission economy a reality is now. It is paramount to establish greater clarity around long-term policy targets and regulatory frameworks to lay the groundwork for accelerating change. The Change Book examines the balance between utilising existing solutions while innovating new technologies and the need for a regulatory level playing field.

“The data shows clearly that we should embrace all solutions to reduce emissions and enable the use of a full toolbox of raw material options rather than trying to guess and pick technological silver bullets. We need breakthrough innovations and focus on research and technology development in order to provide cost-efficient and value-creating solutions for the future,” says Lars Peter Lindfors, Chief Innovation Officer, Senior Vice President at Neste.

The book is divided into three key themes centered around the topics of growing consumer demand for sustainability and circular economy, new opportunities for emission reductions in the industrial sector, and the development and innovation needed for sustainable mobility.

Connecting consumers and the circular economy

The global growth of the middle class and urbanisation are ramping up energy demand, consumption and waste generation, but at the same time increasing demand for sustainable solutions. The Change Book takes a closer look at how to tackle growing waste volumes and highlights the potential of chemical recycling as a solution to increase plastics recycling rates and accelerating the shift to a circular economy. With chemical recycling, hard-to-recycle waste plastics can be turned into raw material for high-quality, high-performance polymers and chemicals. Neste aims to process more than 1 million tons of plastic waste annually from 2030 onwards.

Leading an industrial emissions revolution

In the industrial sector, the big question is how to reduce the large amount of CO2 emissions that result from the production of indispensable products and materials. The Change Book highlights some of the key existing and maturing technologies for driving an emission revolution in heavy industries, including solutions around hydrogen, carbon capture, utilisation and storage (CCUS), and co-processing.

Exploring routes to low-emission transportation

Reducing emissions in the transportation sector holds enormous potential. However, emissions are persistently rising. As its final theme, The Change Book examines the need for multiple low-carbon solutions to tackle transportation emissions, proposes a voluntary crediting system for allowing renewable fuels to contribute to vehicle CO2 targets and discusses how to achieve carbon-neutrality in aviation.

Collaboration for sustainable change

The accelerating climate crisis demands rapid, tangible actions, and Neste is at the forefront in bringing these actions into practice. With The Change Book, Neste is inviting companies, governments and research institutions to collaborate in expediting the development of innovations and technologies needed to drive sustainable change. “At Neste, we are relentlessly striving to find new ways to reduce the amount of carbon released into the atmosphere and develop circular solutions to reuse the carbon again and again. There is no doubt in my mind that we will see more real change in the next ten years than we have seen in the last ten. This will keep Neste on track to fulfill our purpose, and the world on track to combat climate change,” said Minna Aila, Senior Vice President,  Sustainability and Corporate Affairs at Neste.