Net‐Zero CO2 Germany—A Retrospect From the Year 2050

Mengis, Nadine; Kalhori, Aram; Simon, Sonja; Harpprecht, Carina; Baetcke, Lars; Prats‐Salvado, Enric; Schmidt‐Hattenberger, Cornelia; Stevenson, Angela; Dold, Christian; El Zohbi, Juliane; Borchers, Malgorzata; Thrän, Daniela; Korte, Klaas; Gawel, Erik; Dolch, Tobias; Heß, Dominik; Yeates, Christopher; Thoni, Terese; Markus, Till; Schill, Eva; Xiao, Mengzhu; Köhnke, Fiona; Oschlies, Andreas; Förster, Johannes; Görl, Knut; Dornheim, Martin; Brinkmann, Torsten; Beck, Silke; Bruhn, David; Li, Zhan; Steuri, Bettina; Herbst, Michael; Sachs, Torsten; Monnerie, Nathalie; Pregger, Thomas; Jacob, Daniela; Dittmeyer, Roland

Abstract

Germany 2050: For the first time Germany reached a balance between its sources of anthropogenic CO2 to the atmosphere and newly created anthropogenic sinks. This backcasting study presents a fictional future in which this goal was achieved by avoiding (∼645Mt CO2), reducing (∼50Mt CO2) and removing (∼60Mt CO2) carbon emissions. This meant substantial transformation of the energy system, increasing energy efficiency, sector coupling, and electrification, energy storage solutions including synthetic energy carriers, sector-specific solutions for industry, transport, and agriculture, as well as natural-sink enhancement and technological carbon dioxide options. All of the above was necessary to achieve a net-zero CO2 system for Germany by 2050.

Citation

Mengis, N., Kalhori, A., Simon, S., Harpprecht, C., Baetcke, L., Prats‐Salvado, E., Schmidt‐Hattenberger, C., Stevenson, A., Dold, C., El Zohbi, J., Borchers, M., Thrän, D., Korte, K., Gawel, E., Dolch, T., Heß, D., Yeates, C., Thoni, T., Markus, T., Schill, E., …Dittmeyer, R. (2022). Net‐Zero CO2 Germany—A Retrospect From the Year 2050. Earth's Future, 10(2), Article e2021EF002324. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002324

• Journal Article Type: Commentary
• Acceptance Date: Jan 6, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Feb 11, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-02
• Deposit Date: Aug 5, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 14, 2024
• Journal: Earth's Future
• Electronic ISSN: 2328-4277
• Publisher: Wiley Open Access
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 10
• Issue: 2
• Article Number: e2021EF002324
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002324
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/34872360
• Publisher URL: https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021EF002324