Key Impact Points:

• Expansion of Transitioning Industrial Clusters Initiative: Three new industrial clusters from China, France, and the United States have joined the Transitioning Industrial Clusters initiative by the World Economic Forum, expanding its network to 20 clusters across 10 countries committed to achieving net zero.
• Significant Potential for Emissions Reduction: The combined potential of these clusters is a CO2e emissions reduction of 626 million tonnes, which equates to the annual emissions of a country like Australia.
• Diverse Industrial Sectors and Job Creation: These clusters contribute $362 billion to GDP and support 3.5 million jobs, representing diverse sectors like manufacturing, energy, and technology.
• Challenges and Solutions for Decarbonization: The initiative’s latest report identifies key challenges in achieving net zero, such as financing, policy gaps, and the need for public-private partnerships, while highlighting the role of new technologies and infrastructure development.

Three leading industrial clusters from China, France and the United States have joined the World Economic Forum’s Transitioning Industrial Clusters initiative, a network of 20 industrial clusters in 10 countries and four continents that have committed to reaching net zero.

The Transitioning Industrial Clusters initiative is a World Economic Forum community, launched in collaboration with Accenture and EPRI, that aims to support industrial clusters on their paths to net zero. The initiative has grown rapidly since its inception in 2021 at COP26 and all 20 signatory clusters have pledged to improve their governance models and reduce their carbon footprints. This group now represents a combined potential for carbon dioxide-equivalent (CO2e) emissions reduction of 626 million tonnes. This is equivalent to the annual emissions of a country like Australia. The signatory clusters make a direct contribution of $362 billion to gross domestic product and create or protect 3.5 million jobs.

Miguel Torreira, a managing director and global Utilities Strategy lead at Accenture, said, “Reducing industrial emissions is one of the biggest challenges we face in delivering net zero. It’s been great to see the initiative cluster members motivate, challenge, and learn from each other. Although every cluster is unique, they are all sharing infrastructure and resources to reduce emissions and develop new technologies. These steps are essential to ensuring their industrial communities are competitive in a net-zero future.”

A new edition of a World Economic Forum Transitioning Industrial Clusters Annual Report, launched today, shows how the decarbonization of the industrial sector, which accounts for 30% of global CO₂ emissions, could be achieved, while spurring economic growth and job creation.

While warning that “the world is in a race against time to decarbonize”, the new report highlights progress made on the net-zero vision and how these lessons can be applied to the broader industrial sector, a key carbon emitter globally. Using three signatory clusters as actionable case studies, the report charts a path across four key pillars – partnerships, policy, technology and finance. Financing in particular, is a critical step to kick-start net-zero journeys and scale up impact, while creating jobs and spurring growth, as per the new findings.

The report also highlights significant challenges to achieving net zero within the industrial sector, including policy framework gaps, the need to unlock financing to support deployment and scaling of new infrastructure and technologies, a lack of fit-for-purpose governance models, among others. The urgent need to continue to strengthen public-private partnerships and cross-border collaboration are highlighted as critical steps to address these challenges.

The initiative’s three new signatories, all port-anchored industrial clusters, are:

Tianjin Economic and Technological Development Area (TEDA, China): TEDA includes major industries such as high-end manufacturing, information technology, new energy sources, chemical materials and healthcare. It has introduced a series of resource recycling projects for metals and industrial waste and is adopting electrification, solar PV, onshore wind and geothermal power to meet its energy needs. The cluster, which has received national recognition for sustainability initiatives, is also exploring carbon capture, usage and storage technology. TEDA had 16 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2020 (Scope 1 & 2) and expects $90 billion of annual GDP contribution and 600,000 jobs created and maintained by 2060.

“TEDA is committed to joining this initiative and actively participating in exchanges to learn from international, advanced industrial clusters,” said You Tiancheng, Chairman of TEDA Administrative Commission. “By studying their experiences, TEDA aims to facilitate the acceleration of technological and managerial innovations in Chinese industrial parks. This, in turn, will expedite the transition of Chinese industrial clusters towards a future characterized by net-zero carbon emissions.”

DKarbonation: Dunkerque Industrial Cluster (France): The DKarbonation, Dunkerque Industrial Cluster in France, is a major industrial basin, which covers port, steel, aluminium, material and manufacturing, cement, gas, low-carbon hydrogen production, electric mobility and operates a leading European energy facility. DKarbonation had 16 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2021 (Scope 1) and expects $1.2 billion of annual GDP contribution by 2050 and 31,950 jobs protected and created by 2030-2040.

“In joining the World Economic Forum initiative, Dunkirk shows that it remains committed to reaching net zero by 2050 and being at the forefront of tackling global warming,” said Patrice Vergriete, French Minister of Housing, Dunkerque Urban Community President and Chairman, Euraénergie. “We are also committed to helping build a low-carbon economy and society, particularly in the areas of mobility and resource management, housing, transport and training, so that each and every person has access to jobs in the industry of the 21st century.”

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Louisiana Future Energy Cluster (LFEC, United States): LFEC was created by the H2theFuture Coalition, which is led by Greater New Orleans, Inc. and supported by business development efforts of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber. It builds on Louisiana’s role as a top US oil and natural gas producer, with its large concentration of industrial petrochemical facilities and its consumption of approximately 30% of US hydrogen produced today. LFEC seeks to support Louisiana in its effort to become a leader for the clean-energy evolution, building a strong foundation for biofuels, green and blue hydrogen and ammonia, offshore wind power development, advanced recycling and advanced carbon capture and sequestration. LFEC had 143 million tonnes of CO2 emissions from operations in 2021, $54.3 billion of GDP generated in 2021; and 34,546 new high-paying direct jobs through decarbonization.

“The energy sector in Louisiana is leading the way toward a net-zero future and we look forward to learning how to make more progress on decarbonization from our peers in this initiative,” said Russell Richardson, Baton Rouge Area Chamber Senior Vice-President of Business Development. “We aim to not only reduce carbon emissions but also create green jobs that are accessible to all residents. Together, we can create a cleaner, greener and more economically prosperous world for future generations.“