Earth's Future (Feb 2022)

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

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

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EF002324
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 2
pp. n/a – n/a

Abstract

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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 (∼645 Mt CO2), reducing (∼50 Mt CO2) and removing (∼60 Mt 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.

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