Status: 07.10.2021 10:00 a.m.
According to a study, a total of five trillion euros must be invested so that Germany can become climate neutral in 2045. The effort is greatest in industry. But change also offers opportunities.
In order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality in Germany by 2045, total investments of around five trillion euros are required. This is the result of a study carried out by the Prognos Institute, Nextra Consulting and the Institute for Sustainable Capital Investments (NKI) on behalf of the state development bank KfW.
“That is a huge sum, but it is feasible. In order for the challenge to succeed, public investment funds must be used in a targeted manner and private investments must be mobilized,” said KfW chief economist Fritzi Köhler-Geib.
When classifying the gigantic sum, it should be taken into account that the climate protection investments already included investments that would have to be made anyway, it said. These funds would only have to be channeled more into alternatives that make a contribution to climate neutrality. According to the calculations, the additional requirement in the narrower sense amounts to 1.9 trillion. This corresponds to annual additional investments of an average of 72 billion euros by 2045.
Good for Germany as a business location
The climate target requires extensive transformation in all economic sectors, from transport to industry to private households, the authors write. From KfW’s point of view, the billions are also well invested because climate protection investments also offer the opportunity to improve Germany’s competitiveness, for example by developing new technologies. This could strengthen the export-oriented business location Germany in the long term.
The authors state that Germany could generate income that would cover two thirds of the necessary additional investments simply by cutting climate-damaging subsidies. This makes it clear that achieving goals is often not about mobilizing additional capital at all, but rather about consistently aligning political action and investment activities with the goal of climate neutrality.
Great effort in the industry
The analysis sees the largest part of the investments in the area of transport with 2.1 trillion euros. For the most part, however, it is a matter of realigning the already pending reinvestments in this area. The actual additional investments are therefore significantly lower at 153 billion euros.
The second highest investments are therefore required in the energy sector with 840 billion euros. Private households account for around 636 billion euros. According to the calculations, around 254 billion euros of this is additional investments, especially for a climate-friendly housing stock.
The industrial sector will face 620 billion euros. Of this, 462 billion euros are actual additional investments. Production techniques can often only be converted in a climate-friendly way with great effort, it was said to justify.
In the area of commerce, trade and services, around 237 billion euros are relatively low in climate protection investments, around 113 billion euros are additional investments.
EU is aiming for 2050
Climate neutrality means that there is a balance between the emission of carbon and its absorption from the atmosphere in so-called carbon sinks. In order to achieve net zero emissions, all greenhouse gas emissions worldwide would have to be offset by carbon sequestration, according to a background on the subject of the European Parliament.
As part of the Green Deal, the European Union wants to become the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 to eliminate as many CO2 emissions as it produces. To achieve this goal, the EU will set up an independent European Scientific Advisory Board on Climate Change to monitor progress and ensure that the actions taken are in line with the objectives.