Future
Boosting circular economy in the automotive sector
Politics
Empa
New vehicles are responsible for around ten percent of plastic demand in the EU, and the automotive sector is the number one consumer of raw materials like aluminum, magnesium, platinum group metals, and rare earth elements. A new set of provisions, proposed by the European Commission last week to revise the EU End-of-Life Vehicles Directive, intends to enhance the circularity of the automotive sector. Empa researchers played a crucial role in defining the content of this new proposal.
How AI models teach themselves to learn new things
Research
ETH Zurich
Large language models such as GPT-3 are able to learn new concepts by interacting with their users. Researchers at ETH and Google may now have uncovered a key mechanism behind this capability.
The 2°C warming target remains in sight
Politics
EPFL
Can the 120 countries that signed the Glasgow Climate Pact keep to the pledges they made for 2100? Researchers at EPFL have developed detailed models for calculating long-term CO2 emissions-reduction trajectories and analyzing their impact on global warming. Their findings offer a glimmer of hope. 
Swiss energy system could be independent and carbon-neutral by 2050
Politics
EPFL
Researchers from EPFL and HES-SO Valais have modeled the Swiss energy system under the hypothetical constraints of carbon neutrality and energy independence by 2050. The results show that these two constraints could be met while reducing energy system costs by about 30% compared to 2020.
Plastic gobblers found in alpine and arctic soils
Research
WSL
Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL have discovered microbes that degrade plastic at cool temperatures. This opens up new perspectives for recycling certain types of plastic. Most known microbes require at least 30°C for their decomposition work.
Switzerland’s path to the net-zero target
Politics
PSI Empa
Zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050: Switzerland can only achieve this ambitious goal if science, business, politics and society all work together. The six institutions of the ETH Domain have pooled their expertise, with PSI as the Leading House, to form the Swiss Centre of Excellence on Net-Zero Emissions (SCENE), in order to support the country’s decarbonisation.
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