It is all about the new book by GES, which has just been published:

In a detailed interview, Franz Josef Radermacher explains what the book is about:

“The key realisation is, on the one hand, that we have a dramatic problem on the globe with regard to the climate. And the second realisation is that there is a way, with good will and a lot of wisdom, to overcome the situation – in such a way that we can implement the 2030 Agenda to a very large extent and protect the climate. And that in a world with prosperity for ten billion people.”

ALL IN! describes a promising international climate policy. Against this backdrop, the prevailing climate policy is being called into question, which essentially relies on national, usually very expensive measures – but cannot solve the climate problem in this way. This can be observed in Germany in particular.

“Climate nationalism and the policies we are pursuing are not compatible with prosperity, but also carry with them a very high probability of war and civil war. This situation is not very attractive. There will be more conflicts. There are also more problems with the weather. There are problems with food. When we see that climate policy is obviously not able to prevent all of this, then the point will come where people will say: don’t we have another solution? And the interesting thing is that the reference solution, which opens up the chance of a global economic miracle, is ultimately relatively inexpensive. It’s not as if we now have to give up a third of our prosperity, but we are ultimately talking about manageable sums that have to be raised. We just have to get away from the idea that this is something like development aid. We have to get to the point where we say: we are spending our money to solve a substantial part of the climate problem in other parts of the world, including parts that we would otherwise have to spend a lot of money trying to implement here.”

The whole interview with Franz Josef Radermacher (22 minutes) about ALL IN! in the video.

ALL IN! represents an alternative to the all-electric approach being pursued today. The idea is to massively expand energy generation, primarily from solar and wind, until coal, gas and oil have been completely replaced. Fossil fuels should remain in the ground (defossilisation). In such a world, as many processes as possible will be electrically powered, with electrons. Where this is not possible, electricity-based molecules are used: green hydrogen and the gaseous or liquid energy sources produced from it. This approach – which is also being pursued in Germany – is not only expensive and therefore damages the country’s competitiveness, but also ultimately cannot work technically if the technologies available today are used, for example for storage.

ALL IN!, on the other hand, favours all available forms of energy that are climate-neutral and safe: renewable energy, fossil energy with CO₂ capture, nuclear energy, battery electricity, hydrogen and climate-neutral fuels. Currently, 14 per cent of global primary energy comes from renewables (6 per cent from hydropower, 8 per cent from other renewables). Moving this volume towards 50 per cent will be a Herculean task. Other solutions are needed for the second 50 per cent, including nuclear energy, which currently supplies 4 per cent of global primary energy. Coal, gas and oil are deeply embedded in today’s value chains, as energy sources and in the production of cement and steel. In any case, mankind will continue to use fossil fuels for decades to come – which is another reason why carbon capture is so important.

Only on such a broad energy basis is it possible to fulfil the promise of sustainable development so that ten billion people can live in prosperity within the limits of nature.

ALL IN! is a joint effort by the Global Energy Solutions team. The co-authors of this book have decades of experience in business, technology and international plant engineering. ALL IN! synthesises the results of two research projects: “Global Energy Perspectives”, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and twelve partners from industry, and “Climate-neutral coal and gas-fired power plants – converting the energy system economically”, funded by the Vector Foundation (Stuttgart).

ALL IN! is published by Murmann Verlag in Hamburg. You can order the book here.