Topics Overview

Compliance with the Paris Agreement and achieving climate neutrality means transforming all sectors. This requires developing scientifically sound scenarios and instruments that enable goals to be achieved. With our work, we want to contribute to this.

Climate neutrality

With the Paris Agreement, states have committed themselves to limiting global warming to well below 2°C, and if possible, to 1.5°C. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions need to be reduced to net zero within a few decades.

A rapid transition to 100 percent renewable electricity generation provides the basis for climate-neutral business, living and mobility. Electricity will be our central source of energy.

For industry, climate neutrality implies establishing new processes in the basic materials industries. This is an enormous challenge and at the same time a great economic opportunity.

Climate neutrality in the transport sector requires a change in current trends - towards more electric vehicles, public transport, cycling and walking and a change in freight transport, by increasingly using rail and by electrifying road freight.

Energy-efficient renovation, electric heat pumps and heating networks based on renewable energies are at the heart of a climate-neutral building sector.

Climate-neutral agriculture requires sustainable production - with an expansion of organic farming, a reduction in nitrogen fertilization, efficient manure use and changes in animal husbandry.

Carbon sinks are indispensable for achieving climate neutrality. Particularly in agriculture, but also in specific industrial processes, residual emissions remain which can only be offset by negative emissions.

Hydrogen plays a key role on creating a climate-neutral economy. Hydrogen is needed to store energy and for areas that cannot be electrified directly.

Study | Apr. 2021

New Publication: Towards a Climate-Neutral Germany 2045

Study by Prognos, Öko-Institut, Wuppertal Institut (2021)
Conducted for Energiewende, Agora Verkehrswende and Climate Neutrality Foundation