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As the Zero community, we are supporting a regional vegetable carbon project that can be used to absorb CO2 from the atmosphere and bind it in the soil in the long term.

To ensure we meet the target of 1.5 degrees in Germany too, we need to make use of many different levers when dealing with our CO2 emissions. One of these is supporting innovative technologies for binding unavoidable CO2 emissions. This is exactly the approach taken by Carbon Collectors’ regional project in Northern Germany. Through a special procedure, CO2 is stored in the long term in the form of vegetable carbon and introduced to the soil as a source of moisture and nutrients. This allows CO2 to be removed from the atmosphere. The first facility for climate farming and regenerative agriculture is based in Lüneburger Heide, about 30 minutes south of Hamburg and will be taken into service at the end of 2022. Here, vegetable carbon is added to the soil on a space measuring 10-20 hectares.

The technique used to produce vegetable carbon on the model farm is called pyrolysis. Here, vegetable carbon is produced out of organic waste – such as wood or plant cuttings – by ‘baking’ the organic biomass in low-oxygen environments at temperatures of between 380°C and 1,000°C. As a result of this process, a part of the carbon turns to vegetable carbon. The energy needed for this is met by carbonising the waste material. The process generates heat, so that fossil energies can be replaced. Once in the soil, the bulk of the carbon contained in the vegetable carbon will then be stored over thousands of years.

As well as the climate effect, the vegetable carbon improves the soil and allows a layer of humus to form, which is able to store water and nutrients effectively. This in turn helps to create a healthy habitat for microorganisms that reduces nitrate pollution and soil acidification. Vegetable carbon therefore has a positive effect on soil quality and, in addition to its important function as a natural binding agent for CO2, can help to make agriculture more resilient when it is added to arable land.

This is the first regionally concentrated climate project to be supported by the Tomorrow community. One tonne of vegetable carbon can bind 2.57 tonnes of CO2 after the deduction of the emissions that are generated during the process.

As the Zero community, we are supporting important work at climate-policy level that aims to promote green energies and other sustainable technologies and, in turn, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To counter the climate crisis resolutely, it is necessary to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. This means focusing in particular on the main perpetrators. These include the global energy sector, which accounts for some 70% of emissions – with demand for energy continuing to grow. Globally active charity organisation Clean Air Task Force works to meet this challenge on an ecological, financial and even social level. 

The organisation, which is active across the globe and has offices in Boston, Washington D.C., and Brussels, is one of the pioneers of the global environmental and climate movement. Since the 1990s, it has been working to bring about political and technological change, which in turn will help to reduce the CO₂ emissions caused by electricity generation, fossil energies, transport and industry. Or, in a nutshell: to decarbonise business. It does this by carrying out fact and science-based political educational work, running large-scale campaigns and initiating studies. Here, the focus is always on finding solutions.

The organisation aims to bring about a number of things: A common knowledge base with a view to helping people understand the climate crisis facing us all and to establishing a scope of action against it. A change in technologies, to make the entire range of carbon-free options – such as advanced renewable energies, zero-carbon fuels and advanced geothermal energies – available at affordable costs. A change in business models in order to offer modular, producible energy solutions that can be used quickly anywhere. And a change in policymaking to improve the political conditions for promoting new technologies and systems and to keep the aim of reaching zero net emissions by the middle of the century realistic. After all, the best climate models all agree: carbon capture technologies will be of decisive importance for reducing emissions from industrial plants and from the atmosphere.

The Zero community wants to support Clean Air Task Force’s efforts in Europe. Specifically, we want to help it in its work for an EU-wide policy for reducing methane emissions from the oil and gas sector and switching to a more environmentally friendly energy system in Europe.