United for Net Zero Public Private Collaboration to Accelerate Industry Decarbonization 2025

Opportunity 8: Help create the policy conditions for climate technology adoption Policy-makers and industrial stakeholders have a critical role in facilitating innovation and co-creating the policy and regulatory frameworks that incentivize and support the development, commercialization, diffusion and demand for climate technologies. Companies and governments may not only fund R&D, the high-risk aspect of technology development, but they may also invest in the commercialization stage of climate technologies. Collaboration between the public and private sectors can improve the needed policy instruments to support each stage of climate technology development and adoption, such as: –Establish or improve climate technology innovation policy frameworks. –Improve policy and regulatory frameworks that incentivize climate technology adoption, reduce investment risk and provide price support where necessary. –Create institutions supporting the integration of climate technology considerations in development and economic planning. –Boost demand and increase market readiness for climate technologies thanks to public procurement policies. The Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative (IDDI), coordinated by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) and involving several governments and industrial companies worldwide, exemplifies how such public-private collaboration can work to scale green materials adoption (see case study 11). CASE STUDY 11 UNIDO’s initiative boosting sustainable steel and cement demand creation Challenge The steel and cement industries, each accounting for 7-8% of global emissions, remain challenging to decarbonize. Stimulating the necessary demand for their adoption requires new value chains and competitive markets for clearly defined net-zero construction products. Government agencies are top purchasers of steel and cement for major projects such as buildings, roads and bridges, making their procurement policies a powerful tool in creating markets for low emission materials. Solution Coordinated by UNIDO and co-led by UK and India, Clean Energy Ministerial’s (CEM) IDDI is a coalition of government initiatives and organizations designed to create lead markets for low-emission industrial materials. The coalition is composed of several working groups embedding the public and private sector, to focus on establishing data and reporting frameworks, harmonizing low-emission standards and definitions, and advocating for public procurement commitments. As part of the commitments under the IDDI’s Green Public Procurement (GPP) pledge, the governments of Canada, Germany, US and UK held preliminary consultations for their policy-making processes, including requests for information, focus groups, consultations with experts and technical workshops to address policy actions’ development and implementation. In the working groups, stakeholders who are developing policies gather feedback from the affected private actors, so that new policies can be better understood and improved. Impact The consultation processes influenced new policies and programmes, as well as updates of existing procurement criteria that promote near-zero steel and cement, and advance market readiness through increased procurement. Involving the private sector in the policy-making process increased viability, timely implementation, commitment and compliance, while ensuring an effective allocation of resources and sharing of firsthand operational knowledge to the public sector. The signatories’ annual progress reports23 and an upcoming report quantifying the impact of these commitments on CO2 emissions showcase these successes. Source: Consultation with the IDDI; United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). (n.d.). Industrial Deep Decarbonization Initiative: An Initiative of the Clean Energy Ministerial. https://www.unido.org/IDDI. United for Net Zero: Public-Private Collaboration to Accelerate Industry Decarbonization 24