Carbon Reduction in Manufacturing Initiative

The recent IPCC special report on the impacts of climate change highlights the urgency to cut CO2 emissions by nearly in half by 2030, and strive for net-zero emissions by 2050. With the growing public engagement and the indisputable threats from climate change to businesses, economies and our planet, the call to action is stronger than ever.

Manufacturing sectors produce 20% of global CO2 emissions and consume 54% of the world’s energy. In the transition to a zero-carbon economy, there is a huge untapped opportunity for industry leaders to embed carbon reduction into their strategies to increase innovation for growth, competitiveness and resilience. While leaders in manufacturing recognize the need to alter the business-as-usual approach, it is urgent that we collectively define concrete actions and multi-stakeholder collaborations to achieve emissions reduction goals.

The Carbon Reduction in Manufacturing Initiative was launched in January 2020 by the Advanced Manufacturing and Production Platform community with Johnson & Johnson, Schneider Electric and Unilever, and with support from Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management. The Initiative aims to accelerate action and 4IR innovation to achieve a goal of cutting global carbon emissions in manufacturing by 50% by 2030.

This Initiative seeks to speed and scale solutions, innovative ecosystems and partnerships through three key points:

• Establish a foundation for change by identifying key pain points to unlock action to reduce carbon emissions in manufacturing


• Scale leading use cases accelerating carbon neutrality and agree on standardized reporting on carbon accounting


• Launch public-private sector collaborations to amplify solutions and drive new gains

Learn more and engage in this project, please contact beatriz.fernandez@weforum.org