Replacing fossil fuels is a necessary technology to reach net-zero emissions (NZE) target by year 2050, as planned for EU. This objective cannot be reached without a significant role played by solar fuels. They are necessary as chemical energy vectors (CES), to minimize the costs of transformation, to address the case of energy intensive industries, and not least to move to the new societal organization model based on a decentralized sustainable energy and chemistry production. Thus, to pass from the current RE-assisted to an innovative full RE economy (on a world scale).

This lecture will analyse the scenario opened from the energy transition and the role of solar fuels to move to NZE targets, remarking that this is a deep transition, with an entire transformation of the technologies, infrastructure, social and industrial objectives. This creates opportunities for science, innovation and business, but only when the complex interrelations of the transformation are understood, going beyond the current assessment and evaluation models, still used by many international agencies. An example of the need to rethink catalysis from also the fundamental viewpoint to accelerate transition to solar fuels is presented to remark that the challenge of a deep transition cannot be addressed without unconventional, lateral thinking.