Carbon Neutral Strategies to Reduce CO2 Emissions and Mitigate Climate Change

Climate change mitigation generally involves a reduction in human activities of emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs) including the reduction of CO₂. The methods to mitigate CO₂ emissions can be categorized into carbon source-based, carbon emission minimization-based, and carbon sink-based methods. Consequently, technology plays a crucial role in the necessary transition to a low-carbon development. There are three strategies proposedto achieve this: (1) carbon neutral in fuel (including renewable energy, carbon capture and sequestration, and synthetic fuel), (2) carbon neutral building (during design and construction phase), and (3) carbon neutral in production industry (material efficiency and carbon-based product). For carbon neutral in fuel, the renewable energy can reduce emission by replacing it with fossil fuel usage, carbon capture can remove CO₂ directly from its source either completely or partially, and, recycling CO₂ into synthetic fuel can reuse the emitted CO₂ to produce other product, hence reduce the CO₂ emission into atmosphere. The carbon neutral in building can be achieved by proper design during planning a construction and proper management during operation phase. While, in industrial production, carbon neutral can be achieved by proper strategies to improve material efficiency.