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• Mario Mehren in a guest article: we must quickly switch from coal to gas
• Hydrogen4EU: new study analyses hydrogen’s contribution to decarbonisation
• Mehren: gas industry can and will contribute to achieving climate targets

In a landmark ruling, the Federal Constitutional Court has demanded changes to the German Climate Protection Act. The federal government must now amend the law. "With a technology-neutral approach that includes gas, it is possible to save CO₂ emissions on the necessary scale – in Germany and Europe," writes Mario Mehren, CEO of Europe’s leading independent gas and oil company Wintershall Dea, in a guest article published by euractiv. 

"As part of the gas industry, Wintershall Dea wants to make an important contribution to European decarbonisation, and so support the European Union to achieve its ambitious climate goals. For a reliable, sustainable and affordable energy supply, we need both electrons and molecules. Cables and pipelines. We need electricity and gas- as partners-".

Mario Mehren added, "To achieve our ambitious European climate targets, protect households from unfair costs, and keep industry competitive we need a technology-neutral approach with just one goal: fast and affordable emissions reduction.”  Gas technologies should therefore be given greater consideration across all sectors, because they are reliable, affordable, and they pay off when it comes to climate protection. For Mehren, this also means replacing coal with gas more quickly.  Germany saved around 6 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2019 simply by switching 11 per cent of electricity generation from coal to gas.

Hydrogen can be the key to climate protection – new European study published

Hydrogen could be the key to strong climate protection in Europe in the future. "A reliable, sustainable hydrogen market is urgently needed to achieve rapid emissions reduction. But the necessary market can only emerge if significant quantities of carbon-neutral or low-carbon hydrogen are available in the foreseeable future. Hydrogen from renewable sources is currently neither competitive nor available in sufficient quantities. A reliable hydrogen market can only be rapidly established if hydrogen from natural gas plays a central role."

Calculations by Hydrogen4EU show that a technology-neutral energy policy for hydrogen can help Europe to achieve net zero by 2050 – at significantly lower cost. Compared to an approach relying on green hydrogen from renewables, a technology-neutral approach that considers hydrogen from natural gas would save around €70 billion per annum for the next 30 years, according to the study.

You can download the Hydrogen4EU study here: Home | Hydrogen4EU

You can find the guest article by Mario Mehren here:
German Climate Protection Act: Gas is the answer – EURACTIV.com