German energy ministry investigates CCS options to meet climate targets
The German economy and energy ministry (BMWi) has commissioned a study of the country’s options for capturing and storing carbon dioxide emissions to lower its carbon footprint, Manuel Berkel writes on Spiegel Online. According to the article, energy minister Peter Altmaier wants to find out “what kind of infrastructure we need” and at what point carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology would become practicable for the country, the article says. Despite heavy protests by environmentalists against a first initiative to launch the CCS technology in Germany back in 2010, climate protection organisations like WWF or Germanwatch now support a new attempt to use CCS to meet Germany’s emissions reduction obligations under the Paris Agreement. It is still uncertain how well the technology functions to that end and whether it causes environmental damage elsewhere. According to the article, the ministry will primarily research if CCS can be used to store industrial CO2 emissions, which are difficult to avoid and account for about 7 percent of Germany’s total carbon footprint.
Read the article in German here.
See the CLEW article Norway bets on gas and CCS to complement Europe’s energy transition for more information.