This is how Norway wants to save the climate killer CO2 – economy

The gray cement plant juts out of the Norwegian snow, it is a single construction site. Yellow cranes are standing around, even a cement mixer is just approaching. “What is being created here,” says Robert Habeck in the thick snow, “is the future of this cement plant.”

The Green Party’s Economy Minister has come to Brevik to marvel at the future. The German building materials group Heidelberg Materials is converting an entire cement plant here, a good 150 kilometers south of Oslo: carbon dioxide is to be captured here on a large scale as early as next year. The manufacture of cement is one of the biggest climate sins on the planet, accounting for eight percent of global emissions. 400,000 tons of CO2 alone are to be intercepted and stored underground in Brevik, just under one percent of Norway’s current emissions. But of course Habeck is not concerned with Norway, he is concerned with Germany.

Because the technology behind the spin-off is still considered taboo in Germany: Carbon Caption and Storage, or CCS for short. A good 15 years ago, the splitting off of carbon storage was already a big topic in Germany, but at that time mainly to improve the climate balance of coal-fired power plants. Environmentalists cried out, in many regions citizens’ initiatives were founded to prevent deposits. A law finally provided for a de facto ban. At least in Germany.

The visit to Norway is intended to help loosen the front, also in Habeck’s own party. The minister’s new motto is: “Better put CO2 into the ground than into the atmosphere.” Before nothing happens in large parts of the industry, it would be better to rely on CCS. “We wasted so much time that we have to say: We’ll take what’s available,” says Habeck. And finally, there are industries that cannot simply switch to green hydrogen in order to become climate-neutral – such as steel mills and the chemical industry. They need other solutions. And this is where CCS comes in.

At the cement works in Brevik, meter-high steel towers are already in place, in which the carbon dioxide is to be washed out of the air to a certain extent. The towers are the heart of the climate-friendly future here, and they are due to be erected in the summer. The cement industry is one of those who struggle with climate neutrality. The carbon dioxide already occurs here in the chemical process with which cement is extracted from limestone – and in enormous quantities. No amount of energy efficiency can change that. The carbon dioxide has to go somewhere else.

The message is: don’t worry, it’s safe

Norway, currently Germany’s largest gas supplier, also has gigantic storage sites for excess carbon dioxide. To the west of Bergen, 2,500 meters below sea level, the reservoir that will also store the CO2 from Brevik is due to be completed next year. Ships will one day make it around the southern tip of Norway, pumps press the deep-frozen climate killer into porous rock. First experiences showed that the CO2 “mineralizes” there, says Habeck, so it could no longer escape. The message also goes to Germany: don’t worry, it’s safe.

Habeck has been preparing for the change of course for some time. Appropriately, his ministry has the task of evaluating the German CCS law, and the cabinet approved the corresponding report shortly before Christmas. The technologies related to the separation of carbon dioxide are “largely mature,” it says. What’s more: According to studies, in order to achieve the German climate goals, they are “necessary on a significant scale”.

Even among environmentalists, CCS is no longer viewed half as critically as it once was – also since the coal phase-out has made misuse for fossil aftermath unlikely. “The attitude has changed a lot,” says Erika Bellmann, Germany boss of Bellona, ​​the offshoot of a Norwegian environmental foundation. “It’s no longer a question of if, but of how.”

However, the German federal government still has to deal with the how for a while. In order for Norway’s storage sites to be able to absorb captured CO2 from Germany, the government would have to ratify an additional declaration to the London Protocol. This is to prevent the seas from becoming a rubbish dump. It’s actually a formality, and the Ministry of the Environment is also willing to do this. But things drag on, the devil is in the details. The transport of the carbon dioxide to the German coast still has to be regulated, whether by rail, ship or pipeline.

And finally, the effort for the industry must also be worthwhile. At the moment, this is mainly done via European emissions trading – because for every ton of carbon dioxide that a cement plant creates from the world, it currently saves between 70 and 80 euros. It would also be conceivable to promote climate-friendly systems, for example through those differential agreements with which the federal government also wants to help hydrogen achieve a breakthrough.

In any case, Habeck doesn’t want to hesitate any longer. “If we come across something better later, then we’ll just take the better one,” he says. “But carrying on as before is definitely the worse alternative.”

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