Modelling deep decarbonization of industrial energy consumption under 2-degree target: Comparing China, India and Western Europe

The decarbonization of industrial energy consumption is critical for global climate change mitigation, and this process can bring multiple challenges, especially for regions at the early stage of industrialization. To explore the possible transitions of industry sector under 2-degree target, this paper applied a 14-region energy system model (Global TIMES) to analyze the transition pathways of industry sector. The socio-economic uncertainty was considered by introducing Shared Socio-economic Pathways into scenario design. Moreover, a comparison between China, India and West Europe was conducted, to provide information on the key challenges for regions at different industrialization stages. Modeling results show that: 1. In reference scenarios, global industrial energy demand and CO2 emissions would keep growing in next decades, industry sector may emit over 25% of total energy-related CO2 emissions in 2050; 2. The changes in socio-economic developing pattern could slow down the emission growth, however, under 2-degree target, at least 118 Gt of additional emission reduction is required from 2010 to 2050; 3. The mitigation requirement would lead to great energy structure changes including rapid electrification, electricity may be able to provide nearly 40% of Western Europe’s industrial final energy consumption by 2050; 4. Improvement on energy intensity would be accelerated in RCP26 scenarios, especially for emerging economies, by mid-century, China and India’s industrial energy intensity would reduce by over 60% and 50% respectively, compared with 2010’s level.