Phil De Luna

Is net zero by 2050 really possible? Phil De Luna, Director of the Materials for Clean Fuels Challenge Program within the National Research Council of Canada, lays out what the path to a decarbonized society looks like. Since the onset on the Industrial Revolution, upward trends of CO2 emissions and gross domestic product per capita have matched nearly 1:1. Cheap fossil fuels have allowed us to enjoy our current high standard quality of life. But if global temperature are to stabilize, we must learn how decouple carbon emissions and GDP, reshaping our economy so that carbon is not so pervasive. How can we continue to be productive as a society without emitting CO2? 

• According to Phil, only 25-30% of all carbon emissions come from electricity generation. The rest results from a myriad of other sources, including industry like steel and concrete, transportation, land use changes like deforestation, agriculture, and building heating. Phil lays out 5 key steps to holistically reduce emissions – conserve natural carbon sinks, increase renewable capacity, electrify as much as possible, focus on new methods for hard-to-abate sectors like steel and cement manufacture, and carbon capture technologies. 
• As stated in the 2020 Energy Technologies Perspectives report from the International Energy Agency, almost half of the emissions reductions pathways required to get to net zero rely on technologies that are not yet commercial. Phil is adamant that we must speed up this discovery life cycle if we are to successfully decarbonize by 2050. Luckily, we live in an age of new advancements that can accelerate technology production – including increased computing power, a data-rich world, and robotics. 
• At the National Research Council of Canada, Phil uses what he calls a materials acceleration platform to marry robotics, high throughput experimentation and AI to close the loop on innovation. By using a robust, automated process, his lab can accelerate the discovery of new materials and technologies to speed up the energy transition, removing human error from the equation.