2023-06-30 21:26:27
Some of what fuels climate change comes from below. Crude oil and natural gas are stored underground as natural products, as are lignite and hard coal before they are transported to the top. Fossil fuels are burned – for heating, power generation, transport and industry.
Too many greenhouse gases are released in the process, including carbon dioxide (CO2) in particular: This is what drives climate change and brings with it heat waves, droughts and floods. How good it would be if these gases could be dumped back into the ground. It’s actually possible, but Germany shies away from it.
This is remarkable and strange: German politics has so far deprived itself of a method to reduce CO2 emissions in the atmosphere. The principle first provides for the separation of carbon dioxide, for example in an industrial factory. After that, CO2 is usually liquefied, transported and, in any case, stored underground. This is called “Carbon Capture and Storage”, CCS for short, but is practically prohibited in Germany.
Germany has to hurry
In other countries, the exciting process is already underway. In Iceland, carbon dioxide is stored in volcanic soil at depth, and in Norway in rock strata under the North Sea. Denmark absorbs carbon dioxide by ship from a chemical plant in Belgium and dumps it in the sandstone layers of a depleted oil field: in 2030, the amount newly stored there is expected to increase to a tenth of the Nordic country’s CO2 emissions annually. Then Great Britain also wants to have expanded the scope of its CO2 storage, for which the government has selected several locations. The European Union’s climate strategy also includes dumping emissions into the ground.
Germany has to hurry. After all, Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck held out the prospect of underground storage at the turn of the year. The Greens politician wants to make possible with a law what he had previously rejected as state minister.
In his party as well as in others, the progress towards reducing emissions is far from consensus. The search for storage options takes time. The political process too. It will be a while before the law is passed. Then there will probably be as bitter arguments about it as other questions of climate protection.
In general, many people express their agreement to curbing climate change. But willingness decreases when steps become concrete and affect oneself. Local protests prevent or delay the construction of wind turbines or power lines that are necessary for future energy supply. Citizens’ initiatives against the underground storage of CO2 have also been formed. The motto is always: Not here with me – everything should stay as it is.
Which danger is greater?
Some politicians are also afraid of change or fuel fears for other reasons. Environmentalists consider storing carbon dioxide unsafe and too expensive. If that were the case, nobody would do it. The use of storage technology to curb climate change is countered by the fear that some of it could escape and harm people and nature. Which danger is greater?
The next counter-argument is that companies should strive to reduce their emissions instead of dumping them in the ground. However, some industrial processes, such as those used to produce cement, lime or ceramics, have so far technically hardly been able to do without greenhouse gas emissions.
Corinna Budras and Tobias Piller Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 68 Christian Geinitz Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 9 Hanna Decker, Frankfurt, and Philip Plickert, London Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 14 Wolfgang Kempkens Published/Updated: , Recommendations: 19
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also sees the capture and storage of CO2 as necessary in order to achieve the climate goals. According to estimates by the Federal Ministry of Economics, residual amounts of CO2 would still be produced in Germany in 2045. If the country is to be climate-neutral by then, the solution is to ban greenhouse gases into the soil.
Climate change cannot be wished away. The goal is to keep the consequences of man-made global warming as low as possible: by the year 2100, the world should only be 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer on average compared to 1850. This requires a variety of daring attempts, a variety of means and the participation of as many countries as possible. This also includes adapting to the consequences of climate change, as well as strong pricing of CO2 via emissions trading and, last but not least, the capture and storage of carbon dioxide. The more greenhouse gases disappear underground, the better.
#Commentary #CCS #technology #Germany #CO2 #storage