By the year 2050 Europe should become the first “climate-neutral” continent. This goal has just been reaffirmed by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. For this to happen, the electricity mix in particular has to change significantly – i.e. the CO2 input that occurs per kilowatt hour generated. For the year 2019 the Federal Environment Agency was able to report enormous progress. However, the planned steps are not sufficient to achieve the goal of reducing CO2 emissions to zero. A new study shows that the share of green electricity has to increase much faster than previously thought.

According to the study, more investment in renewable energies would have to be made to achieve the goal of climate neutrality. In addition, there must be a complete stop for investments in fossil technologies 2030. The director of the Agora Energiewende think tank, Patrick Graichen, who worked on this study, criticized at the presentation on Thursday (22 October 2020): “The federal government has decided on climate neutrality 2050, but it has no plan for it. ”

Accelerate the expansion of wind power and solar power Like Agora Energiewende, Agora Verkehrswende and the Climate Neutrality Foundation have calculated, the addition of wind and solar systems would have to be tripled in the next ten years and the German climate target for 2030 on 65 Percent less greenhouse gases than 1990 are raised. The green electricity target for 2038 would have to be from 65 on 70 percent will be increased. Instead of targeting as before 10 Millions of electric cars would have to be by then 14 Millions of people are on the street, said Christian Hochfeld, Director of Agora Verkehrswende.

In one second step should be the emissions up to 2050 then to 95 percent decrease. What remains of greenhouse gases, for example from cement production or agriculture, would have to be extracted from the atmosphere and stored using natural and technical solutions.

Coal phase-out by 2030 The complete coal phase-out, which in Germany is currently for 2038 is planned, should be until 2020 have been completed, the study continues, an oil and gas phase-out must follow. This includes that from 615 fossil technologies, such as combustion engines or oil and natural gas heating, are still used but should no longer be sold and installed again.

The most important electric cars (48 Pictures) Audi e-tron (Sportback) Top performance 230 – 265 kW

Continuous output 100 kW

gross battery capacity 71 – 95 kWh

max. Charging power direct current 150 kW

direct current 45 Minutes

Range (WLTP) 336 to 436 km (Sportback: 347 – 446)

Power consumption (NEDC combined) 22 , 4 to 26, 6 kWh (Sportback: 21, 6 – 26, 3)

Maximum speed: 190 (e-tron 50) or. 200 km / h (e-tron 55)

Trunk volume: 660 to 1725 L iter (Sportback: 615 to 1665)

Hydrogen as an energy carrier also plays a major role in the considerations, but not where electricity can be used directly, such as for heating or in traffic. “Hydrogen is the very expensive champagne of the energy transition,” said Rainer Baake, Director of the Klimaneut Foundation