World With hydrogen: 13 NRW corporations want to become climate-neutral by 2050

Climate: In Faches-Thumesnil, the declaration of climate emergency is not unanimous.

The neighboring municipality of Lille has become the second northern city to declare itself in a state of climate and ecological emergency. But the measure does not convince everyone © PHILIPPE HUGUEN / AFP The town of Faches Thulesnil has declared itself in a state of climate emergency ECOLOGY - The municipality bordering Lille has become the second northern town to declare itself in a state climate and ecological emergency.

Going climate - neutral by 2050 . The transition to a climate - neutral society is both an urgent challenge and an opportunity to build a better future for all. All parts of society and economic sectors will play a role – from the power sector to industry, mobility, buildings, agriculture and forestry.

The European Union says it wants to become the first major economy to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 . Climate neutrality means your emissions are balanced by methods of removing warming gases With global climate talks due to start in a few days in Poland the EU's move, although still a

Industry, and thus the most industry-heavy state of North Rhine-Westphalia, is facing the greatest change in its history. Many companies in the country are large consumers of conventionally generated energy. If the employers' associations, large companies and the state government have their way, then hydrogen should enable the transformation towards a climate-neutral NRW.

© dpa dispensing valve of a hydrogen filling station

companies presented 13 projects to Prime Minister Armin Laschet (CDU) on Monday, in which they are investing a total of four billion euros. The aim is to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The initiative is intended to provide impetus for other companies to commit themselves to the subject of hydrogen.

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Fracking has helped reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But it also keeps us dependent on fossil fuels.“Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want to raise taxes, bury our economy over a $2 trillion Green New Deal,” Pence said. “They want to abolish fossil fuels and ban fracking.

July 13 at 5:53 AM. To become climate - neutral by 2050 , Europe needs to transform its ene rgy system, which accounts for 75% of the EU's greenhouse gas emissions. The EU strategies for energy system integration and hydrogen , adopted 8th July, will pave the way towards a more efficient and

China can become a fully developed economy that doesn’t produce any carbon emissions by “This helps lay a solid foundation for China to pursue zero-carbon objectives by 2050 and gain the This will also need a more than threefold increase in production and use of hydrogen to more 80 million tons

Laschet emphasizes urgency

Laschet emphasized the urgency of switching to climate-friendly processes so that the local industry can survive in global competition. It is also about jobs: "We will only maintain the high level of employment in the industrial state of North Rhine-Westphalia if we transform ourselves here and use the necessary technologies," said the CDU politician.

“Building on the pilot projects initiated by the IN4Climate state initiative in the steel and chemical industry, the first large-scale systems are to go into operation in the next ten years, gigawatt-scale electrolysers are to be built, vehicle fleets are to be converted to hydrogen and the necessary filling station network is to be expanded significantly," said State Minister for Economic Affairs Andreas Pinkwart. In this way, NRW could massively reduce CO2 emissions and at the same time enable “our companies to remain competitive in the future”, said the FDP politician. Co-initiator of the industrial-policy alliance is NRW employer president Arndt Kirchhoff.

The Struggle to Save City Trees

Arborists are planting trees today that must survive decades of global warming. The health, comfort, and happiness of city dwellers hang in the balance.“We’re talking about trees that are very vulnerable,” says Navé Strauss, the head of street-tree planting for New York City. His team manages the planting of new trees on streets and public rights of way; there are more than 666,000 street trees in the city, and the team plants about 16,000 new ones annually.

Poland will become the bloc’s second largest source of carbon after Germany when the UK leaves Poland has sought support from the ongoing EU budget negotiations to meet new climate targets. We want to be the role model,” von der Leyen said. “We are determined to tackle climate change

GRETA THUNBERG chastised world leaders for failing to address climate change at the UN Climate Change Say things like, ‘our house is on fire, I wanted to panic or how dare you’. Zero in 2050 means nothing, if high emission continues even for a few years, then the remaining budget will be gone.

Key to the energy transition

Hydrogen is a key energy carrier in the energy transition, as its production from water with the help of green electricity does not pollute the atmosphere. So far, however, it has only been used little in industry.

The head of the RWE energy company, Rolf Martin Schmitz, was there in Düsseldorf. RWE is building an electrolysis plant in Lingen in Emsland to convert wind power into hydrogen. It is to be transported to industrial sites in North Rhine-Westphalia via existing gas pipelines.

One of the customers of the hydrogen is said to be the Thyssenkrupp steelworks in Duisburg. The industrial group wants to gradually replace coal with hydrogen in its blast furnaces. Then instead of climate-damaging carbon dioxide, only water vapor would be produced. The first such system is scheduled to go into operation in the mid-2020s. According to Thyssenkrupp, the Duisburg site alone is responsible for two percent of German CO2 emissions. Thyssenkrupp boss Martina Merz came to the meeting in Düsseldorf.

Green hydrogen significantly more expensive

Chemical companies are also testing how they can use green hydrogen in production. It is still significantly more expensive than conventional hydrogen, which is usually produced from methane gas and with the formation of carbon dioxide. The Essen-based chemical company Evonik is researching special membranes to make hydrogen electrolysis more economical.

Hydrogen can, among other things, be obtained from water by electrolysis and is intended to replace coal, oil and gas as the basis for fuels as soon as possible. And especially in areas that cannot be converted to the direct use of electricity, such as in industry or in air, ship and heavy goods traffic. The federal government wants to make Germany a pioneer in building a "hydrogen economy". (with dpa)