Publications Transatlantic Research Lab on Complex Societal Challenges

Can the chemical industry solve the climate change?On the role of human energy production, renewable energies, and the potential of chemistry as a solution provider

Bertau M.; Steiner G.

Published in energie ingenieur Technik, October 2023, issue 11

Climate change is typically attributed to the amount of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide, in the atmosphere. Here we propose a different view, which takes into account the climate-effecting gas concentration but recognizes human overpopulation and the associated energy production as the real underlying cause. For the chemical industry, there is a lever to change things by replacing existing processes with more efficient ones and by recovering low caloric heat. In this way, the chemical industry can play the role of a driver, a pioneer in the fight against climate change, which underlines the importance of the chemical industry in industrialized countries.