Coal phase-out, climate change, sector coupling: the briefing for the energy and climate sector. For decision-makers and experts from business , politics , associations, science and NGOs.
Free test now!
Natural sinks are not enough
The specific CO2 – Withdrawal targets, or negative emissions, are the real revolution in the new climate protection law. Your need to achieve the Paris climate goals has long been recognized in science, as in the special report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) about 1.5 degrees Celsius global warming set out. Germany wants to take a step in the right direction and store CO2 in natural sinks such as forests, moors or soils to 40 million tons in 2045.
Arwen Colell ist Politik-Analystin am Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC). Photo : PromoThis means that a maximum of 40 million tons of CO2 or an equivalent amount may be emitted with other greenhouse gases. This not only includes residual emissions from industry, but also methane and nitrous oxide emissions in agriculture that are difficult to avoid. The amount is significantly less than results from the first model calculations. There, emissions will only drop to between 60 and 130 million tons of CO by 20502 -Equivalents.
It is right to start expanding the natural sinks, but it is not enough. On the one hand, this is due to the consequences of climate change: Many of the natural sinks are already threatened and will be even more polluted in the future: Heat and drought are troubling forests in Germany, erosion threatens the soil, and moors are drying up. In addition, natural sinks can be short-lived and the CO2 -Binding be very easily reversible. A forest fire is enough. It would be a success to keep the current capacities.
How the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide can be removed from the atmosphere. Image: MCC There are more CO2 – Withdrawal options that are not considered in the Climate Protection Act. This includes the use of CO2 in building materials such as cement, the introduction into the soil in the form of biochar, the binding of CO2 in crushed rock, or novel chemical processes that produce CO2 filter out of the air and store it geologically. These methods have great potential for long-term stable CO2 – Extractions, over centuries to millennia.
Many of these technologies are already being introduced into markets. Still, there is a huge innovation gap. The innovation process is often described as a sequence of stages: from basic research to applied research to demonstration projects, from serving early niche markets to scaling up to a larger market, including a socially shared decision on inevitable side effects in a broad one Introduction.
Case studies show that this process takes decades . For example, 60 years have passed since the launch of the solar cell in the American aerospace industry. There has been rapid and sustainable growth that even the greatest optimists did not believe possible, but market saturation is still decades away.
A tough race against time
Germany is a country of innovation. That is exactly what is needed now. Enormous markets arise. 400 of the 2000 largest companies worldwide have set themselves greenhouse gas neutrality as their goal. To this end, they are already looking for high-performance solutions for capturing and storing emissions. Germany has to get involved in this process.
Other governments and financial service providers have already recognized this. For example, the UK research community is investing £ 30 million in five demonstration projects for large-scale CO2 – withdrawals . The UK government is investing a further £ 100 million in concrete CO2 – Withdrawal projects. The private financial service provider STRIPE invests in CO2 -Taking technologies and recently gave the Funding six start-ups known in its second funding round.
Jan Minx heads the Applied Sustainability Research working group at the MCC. He is also a professor of climate change and … Photo: Promo It’s a tough race against time, the CO2 – Extend withdrawal options in sufficient quantities by 2045. Germany needs more courage to unleash innovation and engineering skills at CO2 – withdrawal. Despite initially high extraction costs, new companies have to be guaranteed a demand until the costs per tonne of CO2 sink. In the future, this could then be done through auctions. The legal obligation to repay our credit in the atmosphere would then become part of the structural change to a truly sustainable economy. Now a concrete plan is needed to achieve the CO2 – Withdrawal targets in the Climate Protection Act. That would be the next important step in the right direction.
–
Related
