8 May 2025
Essen
OGE
Press release
"Creating connections through CO₂: Providing the infrastructure for CO₂ management in NRW" – OGE's Energy Policy Dialogue Ruhr 2025 with high-ranking guests from politics and business
More than 130 guests accepted the invitation to OGE's second Energy Policy Dialogue Ruhr at the Zollverein Coal Mine Industrial Complex in Essen on 7 May.
The event centred around a high-profile panel discussion on a CO2 infrastructure to be developed by the private sector to connect emitters, storage facilities and users. OGE sees itself as a connecting element and strategic partner along the entire CO2 value chain. According to the participants, close cooperation between network operators, industry and political decision-makers will be crucial.
Background: The state government of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) wants to be climate-neutral by 2045. The industries of the Rhine and Ruhr regions have embraced this goal in recent years and are putting a lot of effort into converting their production. However, some sectors are more difficult to transition to climate neutrality due to the nature of their production processes. These include, for example, basic industries such as cement and lime production. In these hard-to-abate sectors, carbon management needs to make a contribution to reducing CO2 emissions. The key challenge here is to find a way of transporting the captured CO2 for storage or further utilisation, and to identify the political factors that need to be addressed. OGE is offering an infrastructure solution and is planning to build a CO2 network to provide a link between emitters and storage facilities or users.
OGE Energy Policy Dialogue Ruhr 2025 panellists (from left):
Thorsten Hahn (CEO Holcim Germany), Malte Bornkamm (Head of Division at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy), Dr Steffi Ober (Head of Economics and Research Policy at NABU) and Dr Thomas Hüwener (CEO of OGE).
The discussion panel, chaired by journalist and TV presenter Marco Seiffert, was made up of high-ranking participants. In addition to Dr Thomas Hüwener, CEO of OGE, Malte Bornkamm, Head of Department at the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, was also present, as were Dr Steffi Ober, Head of Economics and Research Policy at NABU, and Thorsten Hahn, CEO of Holcim Germany.
Thomas Hüwener emphasised that, as with the hydrogen core network, external factors were equally important for the ramp-up of carbon management:
"From OGE's point of view, the coalition agreement between the CDU/CSU and SPD sends the right signals, and the new government could now quickly create the right conditions by providing a legal framework for carbon management. We are convinced that the right political and legal framework along with an attractive investment environment will make a CO2 transmission network possible."
There was agreement that it was now time to move from talk to action, with a particular focus on the rapid adoption of the Carbon Dioxide Storage Act (KSpG) and the ratification of the London Protocol. Holcim in particular emphasised that a solution had to be found for around 3.8 million tonnes of CO2 from cement production to move the gas via pipeline to a storage site. Holcim and OGE are planning a pilot project in Lägerdorf near Brunsbüttel.
The inclusion of the overriding public interest in the KSpG was discussed more controversially: while NABU feared that ecological interests could be neglected, Thomas Hüwener emphasised that these concerns would be carefully discussed and weighed up as part of the mandatory planning approval procedure.
The Ruhr Energy Policy Dialogue is one of a series of political events OGE is offering throughout the year at state, federal and, in the future, European level. Another Energy Policy Dialogue is scheduled to take place in Berlin on 19 November. In addition to its new office in the German capital, OGE will also have its own office in Brussels in summer, enabling it to keep its finger on the pulse of the European Parliament.