The German Chemical Industry Association (VCI) and the Association of German Engineers (VDI) have decided to establish the “Chemistry4Climate” platform. Together with a broad-based group of experts, they want to discuss future proposals and develop concrete concepts on how chemistry and parts of its value chain can become greenhouse gas neutral by 2050. The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) is supporting the project.
As one of the core sectors in Germany, the chemical industry is thus taking up the challenge of working with partners from different sectors to develop proposals for solutions to achieve national and international climate protection goals. VCI and VDI assume that these approaches will also be important for achieving greenhouse gas neutrality in other industrial sectors.
In a study carried out in October 2019, the VCI analyzed the process engineering requirements for greenhouse gas-neutral production in the chemical industry in Germany [1]. According to the study, the transformation of the chemical industry is technologically possible by 2050. However, greenhouse gas-neutral production can only be realized with enormous quantities of green electricity at internationally competitive prices for the electrification of production processes.
Therefore, an unsolved political, economic, and social question, for example, is how the enormous capacity of renewable energies can be built up while at the same time ensuring the supply of electricity to companies at an affordable price.
Experts from the fields of chemistry, energy industry, mechanical engineering, the relevant federal ministries, the IG BCE trade union, as well as various environmental and consumer organizations will be invited to the stakeholder dialogues. The hope is to develop proposals for solutions that are supported by a broad consensus.
- Verband der Deutschen Ingenieure (VDI; The Association of German Engineers), Düsseldorf, Germany
- Verband der Chemischen Industrie (VCI; German Chemical Industry Association), Frankfurt, Germany
[1] Auf dem Weg zu einer treibhausgasneutralen chemischen Industrie in Deutschland, VCI, DECHEMA, and FutureCamp 2019.
