Status: 12/21/2022 4:28 p.m
It is supposed to be a further step in the fight against climate change: underground storage of CO2. A corresponding law is to be introduced in 2023. But the procedure is controversial – and Habeck was against it for a long time.
Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) has announced that CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) technology should also be used in Germany. This means that climate-damaging CO2 is stored underground. In 2023 he wants to introduce a corresponding law.
According to the Reuters news agency, the government is examining “enabling CO2 storage in Germany, including under the sea floor.” The government is thus also opening up the option of a CO2 repository in northern Germany. So far, transporting the greenhouse gas to Norway or the Netherlands has been discussed.
Necessary to achieve the climate goals
The report emphasizes the necessity of CCS technology for industry in order to achieve complete greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045: “While the previous target of 80 to 95 percent emission reductions also permitted development paths without the use of CCS, the requirement for CCS with the goal of net-zero emissions in the current studies common consensus.” This means that the federal government’s current climate targets can only be achieved with the use of CO2 storage.
Ministry of Research supports Habeck
Federal Research Minister Bettina Stark-Watzinger is also pushing for rapid approval in Germany. “In order to decisively combat climate change, we must also rely on technologies for removing and storing CO2 from the atmosphere,” said the FDP politician to the dpa news agency. “We have to allow the storage of CO2 on an industrial scale in the short term,” she added, and spoke out in favor of a corresponding change in the law.
FDP Vice-Chairman Lukas Köhler also emphasized that his party had been campaigning for a strategy for dealing with unavoidable emissions for years. “In order for industry to be able to invest in CCS projects, the legal framework for a CO2 infrastructure must be created, which includes transport and export in addition to CO2 storage,” he said.
So far not legally possible
The existing so-called carbon dioxide storage law dates from 2012 and regulates the research, testing and demonstration of storage technologies in underground rock layers. It also stipulates that the federal government prepares a report every four years on the status of implementation and on the experience gained with the technology at home and abroad.
The current report states that the legal situation in Germany currently prevents the use of carbon dioxide storage. “The approval of CO2 lines for the purpose of CCU is not legally possible,” it says. CCU (Carbon Capture and Utilization) and CCS (Carbon Capture and Storage) are the technical terms for the technology, against which there is also resistance. The argument is that there are environmental hazards in the event of an uncontrolled escape of CO2 from such storage facilities.
opposition from environmentalists
Because of these environmental hazards, environmentalists in particular are opposed to CCS technology. The environmental association BUND announced resistance to Habeck’s plans. Instead of reducing CO2 emissions, the industry simply wants to store them under the sea,” criticized BUND boss Olaf Bandt. “But the seas are not mankind’s garbage dump or a dump for climate waste.” Compressing CO2 there is profitable for the gas industry, but they calculate leaks and they are dangerous for the living space there.
An issue for years
A good ten years ago, the then black-yellow coalition tried to make storage in Germany possible. However, numerous citizens’ initiatives resisted the CCS concept because they feared that the toxic gas would escape to the earth’s surface in high concentrations. Resistance was particularly strong in Lower Saxony and Schleswig-Holstein, where underground cavities are available in depleted natural gas deposits.
Underground CO2 storage was considered taboo, especially among Greens supporters, and Habeck also protested at the time. Ultimately, the law only allowed the technology to a very limited extent for test purposes. And even this could be banned by the respective federal states in the approval process. In the meantime, the deadline for registering projects has expired, so that CCS is currently banned.
With a view to the evaluation report that has now been approved, Habeck argued that a lot had happened in recent years. This must also be reflected in the reform of the law.
Already in use in other countries
The technology is already widespread in many countries. Above all, the Netherlands and Norway want to do business with the storage of CO2 in their former natural gas deposits. Since the CO2 also combines with the rock in certain constellations in the long term, escaping into the environment and atmosphere is now largely ruled out.
The majority of climate science considers CCS to be unavoidable, for example in order to capture greenhouse gases in developing countries, for example from coal-fired power plants. In Germany, the technology should only be used for basic industries such as steel, chemicals or cement. In industrial processes, a complete replacement with climate-friendly hydrogen, for example, is considered impossible.