The German federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) highlights carbon monitoring as a key component in its Carbon Management Strategy, aiming to ensure transparency regarding the available quantities of sustainable carbon resources within the state, including their development and utilisation. The State Agency for Nature, Environment and Climate (German: Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Klima Nordrhein-Westfalen, or LANUK for short) is implementing this measure. The KoMo-NRW project addresses important aspects of the future management of carbon resources in NRW.
The project comprises two sub-projects: In Block A, Monitoring, the Wuppertal Institute develops a definition of the carbon economy and identifies key sectors and industries, as well as the most important carbon flows and networks within the state. The focus of this analysis is on the physical use of carbon. Another focus is the comparative evaluation of process routes for the production of polymers such as polyethylene, on the basis of case studies. This involves comparing and evaluating the various carbon sources – fossil carbon, thermochemically recycled carbon, and bio-based carbon. Based on the findings, the Wuppertal Institute derives recommendations for the monitoring of the transformation towards a climate-neutral carbon economy. A key criterion is to avoid far-reaching new reporting obligations for companies in order to ensure the acceptance and feasibility of the proposed measures.
In Block B, Mike Winkler, supported by Dr. Matthias Scholz and Dr. Christopher Timm, develops a functional concept for a carbon trading platform. This task includes a structured needs analysis, conducted through targeted contact with relevant companies and market participants in NRW, to gain a validated understanding of market needs in the local carbon economy. Subsequently, a coherent, transparent, and theoretically sound business model for the carbon trading platform is developed, and a technical concept for the potential future implementation of the platform is elaborated.
The trading platform concept is based on work from the In4climate.RR project of the Wuppertal Institute and NRW.Energy4climate.