The ACHIEVE consortium will enable Switzerland’s transition to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by empowering key stakeholders with the knowledge, tools and strategies to define and implement science-based roadmaps for addressing hard-to-abate emissions. The project responds to all four Research Challenges of the SWEET call, aligned with the Swiss Federal Council’s Energy Strategy 2050 and Long-Term Climate Strategy. ACHIEVE employs a transdisciplinary co-design process involving societal, policy and industrial stakeholders from the start to ensure relevance and rapid implementation. ACHIEVE evaluates and implements measures to reduce emissions from hard-to-abate sectors, i.e., agriculture, waste-to-energy, cement, chemical, while accelerating the implementation of carbon capture, utilization, transport, and storage (CCUTS) and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) infrastructure. Project objectives include assessing mitigation strategies, unlocking biomass and CDR potentials, advancing circular economy approaches for industrial decarbonization, and co-designing CCUTS pathways and policy frameworks. ACHIEVE pioneers pilots to demonstrate CCUTS and CDR feasibility in Switzerland, including CO2 injection in the underground and biochar-based construction materials. A Swiss-specific Integrated Assessment Model synthesizes findings to evaluate socially accepted transition pathways, integrating natural carbon pools, agri-food systems, CCUTS, CDR, and energy-economic interactions, advancing beyond current modeling approaches. ACHIEVE generates impact across three stages: generating systems knowledge on effective measures, identifying target knowledge for implementation, and designing transformation knowledge to guide policy and technological advancements. Key expected outcomes of ACHIEVE target emission reductions in the agri-food sector, cascaded sustainable biomass use, net-zero cross-sectorial industry roadmaps, a national CCUTS framework, and stakeholder perception and acceptance of trade-offs in net-zero transition pathways.
