CO₂ Strategies

CO₂ transport as a focus of policymakers

OGE aims to use its own CO₂ transport infrastructure to help Germany to achieve its climate targets.

Forecasts of CO₂ emissions

Despite all decarbonisation efforts in industry and in the energy sector, without CO₂ capture and storage, in the year 2045 there will still be approx. 42 million tons of CO₂ equivalent emitted every year. Of these, approx. 26 million tons come from process emissions that are extremely hard to avoid, primarily from the cement and chemical industries.

Around 24 million tons of CO₂ can be captured and stored each year. Forecasts suggest it is possible to recycle a further 10 million tons of CO₂ per year after capture.¹¹

German industry and energy sector in 2045

Agreements and strategies in Europe, Germany and NRW

European Commission Communication: Sustainable Carbon Cycles

In December 2021, the European Commission adopted the Communication “Sustainable Carbon Cycles”. It contains three key measures for achieving the European climate goals: Decarbonisation, Carbon recycling and circular economy with CCUS.
Also in 2021, the EU CCUS Forum was launched. The aim of the Forum is to bring together representatives of the EU institutions, the EU and third countries, non-governmental organisations, business leaders and academics to facilitate the deployment of CCUS technologies¹².

Coalition agreement of the German Federal Government

The coalition agreement between the SPD, Alliance 90/The Greens, and the FDP states, in the chapter on ‘Transformation of the Economy’: “We acknowledge the necessity of technical negative emissions as well, and will develop a long-term strategy for dealing with the approximately five percent of unavoidable residual emissions.”¹³

Carbon Management Strategy of the Federal Government

The Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection (BMWK) has launched the process to develop a national carbon management strategy in 2023. Based on the evaluation report of the Carbon Dioxide Storage Act (KSpG) and further studies on CCU and CCS, the strategy is being developed in dialogue with extensive stakeholder participation with the aim of being completed by the end of 2023.

Carbon Management Strategy of the State of NRW

The Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (MWIDE) published the Carbon Management Strategy for the state in October 2021, which addresses four areas of action: decarbonisation, sustainable carbon use, CO₂ management and social discourse. A crucial element for climate-neutral industry in NRW is considered to be a circular carbon economy, along with holistic management of CO₂ by means of capture, transportation, utilization and storage, since full decarbonisation is not possible, it states. The strategy also points out that a pipeline-based CO₂ infrastructure is required for the industrial scale in NRW.¹⁴

Sources

11 Deutsche Energie-Agentur GmbH (ed.) (dena, 2021). “dena-Leitstudie Aufbruch Klimaneutralität”, p. 214-215.

12 European Commission (2021, December). Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council. Sustainable Carbon Cycles. Brussels, p. 1-2.

13 Coalition Agreement 2021-2025 between the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Alliance 90/The Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) (2021). Mehr Fortschritt wagen, p. 51.

14Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia (ed.). (2021). Kohlenstoff kann Klimaschutz - Carbon Management Strategie Nordrhein-Westfalen, p. 11, 36, 49.