“We globally need to do more!” Siemens’ José Aparicio writes on the Net Zero challenge

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“What is Net zero? What is being done? What are some of the challenges already identified along the way?” asks José Aparicio, managing director and president of Siemens Energy Mexico, Central America and Caribbean.

All elements of society must work together to make sure we achieve and continue the decarbonisation and sustainability path after 2050. This is the core of the analysis presented in the fifth report, The State of the World series, published by FIDIC.

The purpose is clear: Net zero conversations and targets must be continuously driven in order to increase awareness, commitment and technical develops to achieve these long-term sustainable goals. This is not an easy task and the analysis shows how the different parts of the global economy must work together, act fast and co-create complimentary measures to the already existing ones.

It’s a fact that the sense of urgency is increasing, and we are seeing a higher attention to these topics. We need to reflect if these actions are enough to sustain our commitments beyond 2050.

As a member of Siemens Energy, I am proud that my organization is acting accordingly and implementing our own decarbonization strategy with a clear target to be climate-neutral in our own operation by 2030, and to cover 100% of our electricity consumption with green electricity by 2023.

As part of our commitments, and in adherence to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, we are focused on five SDGs:
• Gender equality
• Affordable and Clean Energy
• Decent work and economic growth
• Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
• Climate action

Initiatives and programmes are driven across regions to make sure we close gaps and achieve our goals over the time period we have set for our company.

Now, coming back to the fifth report and its findings, from my perspective it is important to emphasize the following three points:

• Constant data analysis and implementation of actions, more than ever data is available and accessible to most people. The foundation of the report comes from excellent resources which are tracking the UN Sustainable Goal and Net zero targets. It is up to each person to familiarize themselves with the information, create and demand even more up-to-date data transparency for analysis and generate ideas that can be translated into actions to improve our status-quo.

• Innovation is closely related to the previous statement and is key to develop new products, solutions and services to navigate this transition and even facilitate the mitigation of the climate challenges. Of course, commitment and investment are needed to gain maturity and market readiness. It is important to keep an evolutionary approach for a gradual and affordable transition.

• Cross-sector collaboration means that all sectors of society have a role to play and must engage in the same direction. It is not solely the work of private or public sectors, all members of society must actively participate in the discussion, education, defining priorities and actively commit to actions.

We globally need to do more! Our purpose in Siemens Energy is to energize societies and contribute to achieve the Net Zero goals. The invitation goes to all of you to energize them together!

José Aparicio is a contributor to “Net Zero – What Next?”, the latest research paper in the FIDIC State of the World series. You can read the full report here.