Last year in Dubai (United Arab Emirates), this year in Baku (Azerbaijan) – the most recent climate conferences have taken place in regions whose economies are heavily dependent on oil and gas. Around 80 per cent of global primary energy still comes from fossil fuels. The climate debate must face up to this fact. In the international debate, carbon capture – i.e. the capture of CO2 in order to dispose of it or utilise it further – has long been accepted. From GES’s perspective, carbon capture is an important instrument in climate protection – one of several. That is why our approach is ALL IN!
Carbon capture is also the subject of the work of Tobias Orthen, a member of GES. He was in Baku on behalf of the Council of the Engineers for the Energy Transition (CEET), an expert committee of the UN. In this interview, he gives an insight into his work and categorises the German debate from an international perspective.
Tobias Orthen also comments on an important outcome of COP29 in Baku, namely the agreement on the organisation of international carbon markets. This allows industrialised countries to initiate projects in the Global South and have the CO2 savings credited to themselves. This applies not only to technical projects, but also to projects in the area of nature-based solutions, such as reforestation.