NGO demands clarity on major industrial greenhouse gas source in southern Germany

Chemicals producer Solvay must provide clarity about the extent of emissions of the potent greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride (SF6) at a production site in the southern German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, NGO Environmental Action Germany (DUH) has said. DUH has filed a lawsuit against the Belgian company, which operates Europe’s only SF6 plant near the city of Heilbronn. The gas is used as an insulating agent in industry installations and has a much higher global warming potential than carbon dioxide.

The lawsuit comes after researchers from the Goethe University Frankfurt am Main detected elevated SF6 concentrations in the region in 2023 and informed state authorities about a possible leak in early 2024, newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported. However, authorities were unable to legally intervene in the company’s operations without clear data on actual emissions.

In November this year, Baden-Wurttemberg’s government ordered a series of monitoring measures to clarify the extent of SF6 emissions and fix possible leaks, a step that the chemicals producer then challenged in court. The newspaper noted that Germany has no specific legal limit on SF6 emissions, but only a so-called aggregate parameter for fluorinated gases that does not cover emissions on individual production sites.

“The massive release of one of the most dangerous climate gases did not happen by accident or go unnoticed,” said DUH head Jürgen Resch. For more than a year, the Green Party-led government  has been unable to halt the environmental damages possibly caused by the plant, indicating “a serious failure in climate action and regulatory oversight,” Resch said. He said DUH demands “full transparency” on the plant’s emissions over the past years and “a suspension of operations, if necessary, to bring them to an end.”

Public broadcaster ZDF reported that the state’s economy minister, Thekla Walker from the Green Party, was considering ordering an immediate halt of operations. Even if there is evidence that emissions at the Solvay plant are declining, these would still be “far too high” and had to be rapidly cut further.  

The researchers had estimated that SF6 emissions in southwestern Germany between 2020 and 2023 amounted to about 30 tonnes per year, 500 times more than the 56 kilograms reported by Solvay, according to DUH. This amount of SF6 equals roughly 730,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalents, comparable to the emissions of about 250,000 long-distance flights, the NGO said.