Research Network on Systems Analysis Presents Recommendations for Negative-Emissions Technologies
About 200 members of the System Analysis Research Network of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE) gathered in Berlin for their annual meeting. Also in attendance were Prof. Dr. Niklas Hartmann, as well as Philip Guerra and Mehul Vijay, doctoral students and research assistants at the Institute for Sustainable Energy Systems (INES) at Hochschule Offenburg. Among other things, the meeting featured presentations on the findings from 13 thematic groups formed over the past year.
One of these thematic groups focused on negative emission technologies (NET), which remove harmful greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) or methane from the atmosphere and are essential for achieving climate neutrality. Niklas Hartmann, one of the spokespersons for the System Analysis Research Network, presented a position paper summarizing the discussions and findings of the NET thematic group. Based on current research on NETs, the participants compiled various recommendations for action in the paper. “To achieve climate neutrality, it is not only necessary to avoid greenhouse gas emissions, but also to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere using NET,” Niklas Hartmann noted at the outset. From the topic group’s perspective, the development, evaluation, and incentive systems for implementing such solutions should therefore be clearly positioned as a research focus in the BMWE’s 9th Energy Research Program. There is a particular need for research into the development of integrated system models to map NET, CO2 flows, and infrastructure requirements, as well as in the assessment of long-term scenarios and NET portfolios. In addition, the policy framework must provide efficient investment incentives for NET. Since other EU countries have already gained experience in establishing frameworks for NET, the position paper also encourages international cooperation and a joint effort to establish EU-wide framework conditions.
Later in the meeting, Philip Guerra and Mehul Vijay presented the two INES research projects on “Industrial Area Decarbonization” and “Resilience of Municipalities.”
The System Analysis Research Network
In 2014, the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy launched the Energy Research Networks to address key areas of energy research. One such area is systems analysis. The network of the same name focuses on the development and improvement of systems analysis methodologies and models.
