Industry 4.0 and Climate Change—Exploring the Science-Policy Gap

Abstract

The paper aims to explore the gaps and overlaps between statements of intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) working at the intersection of climate change, sustainable energy, and industrial development regarding the role of Industry 4.0 for climate change mitigation and the scientific literature addressing the energy and resource efficiency of Industry 4.0. To fulfill this objective, we conduct a two-tier review of relevant literature from both IGOs as well as academia. The analysis of documents from IGOs shows that Industry 4.0 is strongly associated with energy efficiency potentials that could contribute to climate change mitigation and more sustainable energy use in the industrial sector. Based on a review of the scientific literature, however, the paper concludes that it is currently not possible to validate this assumption and provide concrete figures since analyses providing a more comprehensive picture of potential energy savings, including possible negative effects and rebounds, are lacking. We suggest that these issues be addressed in further research, e.g., through concrete case studies that go beyond the assessment of single Industry 4.0 technologies. Furthermore, efforts should be strengthened to communicate findings from technology-centered research into political strategy-building and decision-making processes and, at the same time, raise awareness in the technological domain for the information needs of policymakers.

Axiomatic Design for Creativity, Sustainability, and Industry 4.0

“…Potentially, the technological innovations associated with I4.0 should create increasing global wealth while, with appropriate economic and social incentives, mitigating climate change by improving energy efficiency and reducing waste [2]. Indeed, I4.0 has recently been cited as promoting energy efficiency, contributing to mitigation of climate change, and promoting sustainable energy use by industry [16].…”

A General Outline of a Sustainable Supply Chain 4.0

“…Huh and Lee [44] set up a testbed and simulation for a lower-power digital "excitement" system for I4.0. Fritzsche et al [45] revised the literature to identify gaps in intergovernmental organizations that study climate change and I4.0. Campo et al [46] presented a solution by using the IoT for optimizing energy in an I4.0 domain and discussed applying it to real life.…”

Flow Shop Providing Frequency Regulation Service in Electricity Market

“…Hence, the flow shop only needs to decide the bids, the energy purchased in the day-ahead spot market and the regulation reserve capacity sold in the regulation market, respectively. The factory is supposed to work from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Its objective is to minimize the cost of the flow shop in the two markets, as expressed in Formula (7).…”

“…However, most of these technologies are not yet universal [6]. They, nevertheless, are worth exploiting for more applications [7], such as industrial pollution control, carbon emission reducing and waste recycling [8,9]. For manufacturing industry in particular, those Industry 4.0 technologies can be instrumental for the operation of power system by some new models of energy management [10].…”