Can Re-Industrialisation and Low-Carbon Economy Go Together?

Results from stakeholder-based scenarios for energy-intensive industries in NRW

  • Publications 22.10.2015

The German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) is the first to have adopted its own Climate Protection Law. This paper "Re-Industrialisation and Low-Carbon Economy - Can They Go Together? Results from Stakeholder-Based Scenarios for Energy-Intensive Industries in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia" by Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Clemens Schneider, Maria Yetano Roche (all Wuppertal Institute) and Samuel Höller (Umweltbundesamt) describes the long-term mitigation scenarios for NRW's main energy-intensive industrial sub-sectors which served to support the implementation of the CPL. Furthermore, the process of scenario development through stakeholder participation is described, considering three different pathways: best-available technologies, break-through technologies, and CO2 capture and storage. The authors come to the conclusion that a policy of "re-industrialisation" for NRW based on the current industrial structures would pose a significant challenge for the achievement of overall energy demand and German greenhouse gas emission targets. The results indicate the importance of successful development and implementation of a decarbonised electricity supply and breakthrough technologies in industry if significant growth is to be achieved in combination with climate mitigation. Technological solutions alone, together with unmitigated growth in consumption of material goods, could be insufficient to meet GHG reduction targets in industry.

The paper by Stefan Lechtenböhmer, Clemens Schneider, Maria Yetano Roche (all Wuppertal Institute) and Samuel Höller (Umweltbundesamt) was published in the journal "Energies" and is available online.


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