Government experts want to cart Germany’s CO2 abroad by truck

The state-run German Energy Agency (Dena) proposes new principles, rules, definitions and changes to the law for dealing with technologies for separating and storing or using CO2 in Germany. The technologies known as CCS or CCU should “make an important contribution to a climate-neutral Germany”, but the “top priority should be to reduce emissions”, according to a Dena proposal paper.

Foreign storage as the only option

The concept was presented internally to the government at the “Stakeholder Dialogue on the Carbon Management Strategy” (CMS) on Tuesday and is available to Table.Media. The lead climate and economics ministry pointed out that these proposals did not come from the ministry.

“CO₂ storage is not a high-risk technology,” writes Dena. Risks could be minimized. And the application is urgent for climate protection reasons: “CCS will have to make a contribution to climate protection as early as 2030,” it says. Foreign storage is the only way to do this, so “CO2 export should be made possible in the near future”. In the future, all transport routes would probably have to be used: ships, trucks, trains, pipelines.

“Fossil business models” must end anyway

With its proposals, Dena supports the plans to classify certain emissions from industry as “unavoidable” or “difficult to avoid” and to neutralize them with CCS/CCU. In addition to CO2 emissions from the cement and lime industries and waste incineration, process emissions from the chemical industry could also be included “if it is foreseeable in the medium term that the necessary technologies or amounts of energy will not yet be available” to decarbonize the sectors.

In all of this, the goal of a “profound transformation of the industry” must be ensured. The phasing out of fossil energies must have “top priority”, the switch to renewables must not be jeopardized and “fossil business models” must not be extended.

For these goals, the “Carbon Dioxide Storage Act” and other regulations such as the Federal Immission Control Act must be changed so that the transport and storage of CO2 is legal, unlike today, according to the proposals. The introduction of the technology should be “as market-driven as possible” and, for example, by “sufficiently high CO₂ pricing”, the costs should be passed on to those who cause them – however, “targeted investment support” and green lead markets are also important in order to develop the field.