Interviews

In his documentary film “The Forest Maker” (2021), Volker Schlöndorff portrays the agronomist Tony Rinaudo. The Australian has developed a reforestation technique in Africa. The FMNR method (Farmer Managed Natural Regeneration) is particularly cost-effective. In contrast to complex and expensive reforestation, the existing root system in the soil is reactivated – in co-operation with local […]

Joachim Weimann is a professor of economics in Magdeburg and advises the think tank R21 on climate and energy issues. He considers emissions trading systems – i.e. the pricing of CO2 emissions as part of a cap-and-trade system – to be the decisive lever in climate policy. He sees strengths above all in the market-based […]

In this interview, Hans Jürgen Wernicke (GES) explains the technical possibilities for making the various modes of transport as climate-friendly as possible. Around 95 per cent of all means of transport – cars, lorries, ships and aircraft – are currently powered by fossil fuels, most of which are based on crude oil. This makes the […]

Christof von Branconi summarises the key points of the new GES paper on the electricity system in an interview. According to GES estimates, the demand for electricity will be lower than previously planned: The e-car boom is not happening, the same applies to heat pumps and the expansion of large electrolysers for the production of […]

No green hydrogen without electrolysis, no electrolyser without precious metals. Iridium and platinum serve as catalysts that set the chemical process of water electrolysis in motion in the first place – so that hydrogen is produced in the end. Heraeus Precious Metals in Hanau founded the Hydrogen Systems business line at the beginning of the […]

The approval of HVO was preceded by years of political dispute in Germany. In other European countries – such as the Netherlands, Italy and Scandinavia – the fuel has been part of everyday life for years. It is obtained from biological residues (e.g. cooking fats, waste oils). The decision to start selling HVO in Germany […]

GES is in dialogue with an Indian energy expert: Manoj Agarwal lives in India and has many years of experience in the energy industry and had been the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of the then one of the major Indian Power Utility company in the private sector. Today he is a freelance consultant. In his […]

Peter von Zumbusch is plant manager of the chemical company Wacker in Burghausen, Bavaria, which employs 8,000 people. The production of semiconductor silicon as a basic material for chip production is a key pillar. And this pillar is energy-intensive. Wacker in Burghausen consumes about as much electricity as 900,000 households. Peter von Zumbusch is in […]

Gerd Ganteför is professor emeritus at the University of Konstanz, an experimental physicist and runs a YouTube channel on the subject of climate. He identifies a climate ideology in Germany. Instead, he argues in favour of science, prudence and reason – instead of spreading fear scenarios. Ganteför reports on a shitstorm that he has faced. […]

Carlos Lange is responsible for the Green Energy Europe division of Fortescue Future Industries (FFI). The Australian company is the world’s fourth largest producer of iron ore. The aim is to reduce CO2 in mining and its own value chain to zero. In the interview, Carlos Lange reports on projects for the production of green […]