To avoid the potential grave damage from climate change, human activity produced carbon dioxide needs to be zero within several decades. Businesses and industries need to be creative and innovated if they plan to meet this goal. Besides the common “villains” of carbon emission such as heating, cooling, and vehicles, there are more challenging activities that must also be addressed and they include; air travel, fright by truck, trains, and ships.

A team of scientist from University of California and Carnegie analyzed the barriers of these activities. There has already been a increase of global emissions from the demand of air travel and freight shipping. The manufacturing of steel and cement releases up to 1.7 billion tons of carbon dioxide annually. This is expected to grow as the need for new infrastructure is needed. Lastly, the need for electricity needs to be met by wind and solar power, therefore there needs to be more research into those types of resources.

The team’s suggestions included the synthesis of energy dense hydrogen or ammonia-based fuels for aviation and shipping, new furnace technologies for the cement and steel manufacturing, and tools to capture and safely store hydrocarbon emissions. The biggest drawbacks of these suggestions are the costs of implementing and improving new technologies to the current infrastructure and manufacturing process.