Can net-zero R&D match the COVID-19 response?

Patrick Speedie, Co-Founder & Co-CEO of IN-PART, asks can R&D do for the climate crisis what it achieved for the pandemic?

It was all hands-on deck for biopharma R&D teams following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. After just eight months from the start of lockdowns and restrictions, the first vaccine dose was administered on 8 December 2020. It represented a remarkable turnaround. The development of vaccines for other diseases has previously taken more than 10 years.

By the second half of 2021, many countries had returned to normality or near-normality, and it shows what is possible when we work together to achieve a common goal. Now, our attention reverts back to the current global threat of climate change.

Recent extreme weather events have impacted both lives and livelihoods, and the current rate of inaction against the crisis means the world could be facing a 1.5°C rise in temperatures by the beginning of the 2030s.

Failure to act means that these events will become increasingly frequent and more severe. So, the time is now for R&D teams across all industries to prioritise working together with academic institutions at the cutting-edge of sustainability innovation and devising novel solutions.

However, the net-zero commitments that have been made by companies and governments globally are facing increasing scrutiny, with several examples of ‘rollbacks’ that are likely to have a huge impact on the success and timeline for delivery of change. In October 2023, UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was widely criticised for announcing the abrupt rollback of key climate policies in the country’s net-zero strategy.

Despite this, more than one-third (34%) of the world’s largest companies are now committed to net-zero. Mandated regulations aside, there are several internal and external driving factors.

For example, in the race for talent, employees want to see tangible evidence that their organisation is making a positive contribution to society. While a Capital Group analysis showed that nine-in-ten investors considered environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in their investment approach in 2022. Investors are not just looking for short-term strategies, but also how an organisation’s core business model plans to tackle ESG issues in the long term.

So what’s holding R&D teams back from supercharging the same level of innovation that was witnessed during the pandemic? One of the reasons that it hasn’t happened on a big enough scale is that physical science firms often operate on shorter-term horizons and will focus on immediate profitability and shareholder value.

Climate change is still perceived as a long-term risk, with little immediate impact on business operators or financial performance. However, a collaborative spirit is now needed to tackle the rising sea levels, extreme weather events and mass-scale ecosystem disruption that we already see today.

We’re already beginning to see exciting strides towards sustainable action in the R&D space globally. For example, Greenback Recycling Technologies opened its advanced recycling plant in May 2023 in Cuautla, Mexico, together with Nestlé Mexico, leveraging microwave-induced technology to transform flexible plastics into pyrolysis oil for new food packaging.

Amsterdam-based, renewable chemistry specialists, Avantium, has partnered with Thailand’s SCGC, to further develop CO₂-based polymers and to scale up to a pilot plant with an annual capacity of 10Mt.

The success of the vaccine rollout should serve as inspiration to professionals around the globe that they can work together effectively to achieve a shared objective. R&D teams that fail to look further afield than their local partners are missing out on a wider diversity of thinking, an increased breadth of research and holistic outcomes. The partnership between AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford, UK, proved pivotal to the rapid introduction of a vaccine that was released to as many as 170 countries by the end of 2021.

This example highlights how, with access to pooled knowledge and resources to tackle a problem holistically, R&D departments can break down barriers and speed up development. This kind of open collaboration provides better opportunities for partnerships that feel authentic and mutually beneficial. Crucially, it increases the chance of discovering the elusive needle in the haystack that can foster a mission-orientated focus and drive innovation in green initiatives.