The importance of tribology for reducing CO2 emissions and for sustainability

The global community has set itself the goal of stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions at the 2004 level in order to not exceed the climate targets of 500 ppm CO2 in the atmosphere and a mean surface temperature increase of 2 ?C by 2054. Tribology is a not directly visible consequence of human activities and is divided into energy consumption due to friction losses and additional resource consumption through wear and failures of machine elements. The broad range of solutions offered by tribology to reduce CO2 and increase sustainability is presented in detail. Consistent application of the existing technologies results in a medium/long-term reduction potential of 6?10 gigatons of CO2eq. or >15?26% of the 37.9 gigatons of direct CO2 emitted globally in 2019. The total greenhouse gas emission in 2019 were 51.8 gigatons of CO2eq..