Material Use: The Next Challenge to Climate Policy

New challenges for climate policy are emerging from potentially disruptive technologies: a new wave of automatisation and highly advanced machines; new production processes like additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing; and new materials like sophisticated polymers that might substitute steel and aluminium. The potential impact of these technologies ranges from the local organisation of work to global supply chains. Investigating the potential impact of these evolving transformations might reveal substantial opportunities for enforcing deep decarbonisation. Examples are an active role of buildings in integrated local energy systems, advanced communication technologies for substituting transport needs, or a deliberate re-localisation of production processes. The built infrastructure (and thus construction materials) plays a tremendous role in the context of transformation and stock fl ow interactions. We put these challenges into the context of EU energy and climate policy with the proposition that without a new understanding of materials, it will not be possible to meet with the emerging long-term climate targets.