The Association of the Chemical Industry (VCI) sees the hydrogen strategy of the German government as a decisive step for a successful energy transition.
VCI General Manager Wolfgang Große Entrup supports the Federal Cabinet’s planned adoption tomorrow: “Hydrogen is the universal solution for climate protection. There is no alternative to using it to reduce greenhouse gases in energy-intensive industries such as chemistry. Germany must make rapid progress so that we can be at the forefront of international competition for the best innovations and applications. “
Climate protection with hydrogen can only be achieved through openness to technology. In the long term, politics must take into account all technologies that are suitable for the low-greenhouse gas production of hydrogen, the VCI general manager demanded. These included processes in which hydrogen is obtained from fossil sources, but the resulting CO 2 is separated. The political and social dialogue on this must be conducted quickly and free of ideology. Big Entrup: “As an industry, we want to contribute constructively to the dialogue. Sustainable climate protection requires new thinking. “
Große Entrup therefore finds the announcement by politicians to support the efforts of energy-intensive industries such as chemicals to reduce greenhouse gases very positively with dialogue events. The “Chemistry4Climate” climate protection platform, which the industry has already launched, is pursuing similar goals, said the VCI general manager.
The chemical industry as the largest hydrogen user in the future must also be represented as an industry in the national hydrogen council. Big Entrup: “In the chemical industry, with our Roadmap 2050, we showed the industry’s path to CO 2 neutrality. In addition to this know-how, we would also like to contribute our ideas for the further development of the energy transition because we need a lot of renewable electricity for the necessary hydrogen economy. ”At the moment, the cost-effective expansion of renewable energies in Germany and Europe is not keeping pace with the future needs of industry. “Europe still has some catching up to do when it comes to hydrogen and the expansion of renewable energies,” says Große Entrup.
According to the VCI, the German chemical industry alone will need more than 600 terawatt hours of green electricity to completely avoid its greenhouse gases by 2050, a significant part of which for the production of hydrogen. Große Entrup urged that the necessary infrastructure be started quickly so that hydrogen could also be used to manufacture chemical products.
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