CO 2 day

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Logo of the CO2 Day 2018
Logo of the CO 2 Day 2018

The CO 2 day is an artificial term created by the natural gas lobby initiative Zukunft ERDGAS for the day on which Germany is supposed to have completely exhausted its CO 2 budget according to Zukunft ERDGAS . It is intended to draw attention to the explosive nature of the issue of climate protection ; the basis for calculating the day is to be the Paris Climate Agreement . Based on the absolute CO 2 budget applicable for Germany , the initiative specifies average permissible annual budgets for the period up to 2050. These are based on the assumption that the same amount of carbon dioxide would be emitted every year. Since it was founded in 2017, CO 2 Day has moved forward by six days. This means that Germany has recently been living climatically beyond its means.

The specification of specific annual budgets instead of the limited total carbon dioxide budget by the initiative contradicts the state of research to a certain extent. The current state of research is that to halt global warming it is necessary to reduce net carbon dioxide emissions to practically zero. The reason for this is the long residence time of carbon dioxide in the earth's atmosphere . Therefore, for an effective climate protection policy, it is not enough to reduce emissions to a certain level or even to stabilize them at today's level; rather, climate policy must aim at completely avoiding new greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, as of 2017, mankind still has a remaining budget of around 600 billion tons of carbon dioxide at its disposal in order to meet the 2-degree target. With current emissions of around 40 billion tonnes per year, this would be completely exhausted in 15 years. No more CO 2 should then be released.

Origin of the CO 2 day

The CO 2 day was first launched in 2017 by " Zukunft ERDGAS ", the initiative of the German gas industry. The calculation of national CO 2 budgets, on which the initiative is based, has been anchored in international law since the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. The first CO 2 day announced in Germany was April 3, 2017. In 2018, the day was celebrated on March 28. It was retrospectively dated back to March 31, taking current data into account. The CO 2 day 2019 was on March 27th, moving three more days forward. The budget idea is intended to underline the urgency of taking immediate action when it comes to climate protection. Every ton of CO 2 saved today does not put a strain on the limited budget. Every ton that is later reduced requires more effort.

Date and calculation of the CO 2 day

According to the Natural Gas Initiative, the Paris Agreement bases the climate targets on a final, global CO 2 budget. According to a study by Nymoen Strategic Consulting, which was commissioned by the ERDGAS initiative and which in turn is to obtain its data from the environmental organization WWF, Germany will only be allowed to emit a maximum of 9.9 billion tons of carbon dioxide between 2015 and 2050.

In the climate protection report, the federal government has also set itself the goal of emitting only 592 million tonnes of CO 2 equivalent by 2035 . From this, the ERDGAS initiative calculated annual averaged emissions budgets for the period up to 2050. The CO 2 day itself is calculated by adding the real emissions from the previous year to the annual emissions budget: Calculation example for 2019: (365 days / 841 million t) × 198 million t = 86 days.

year Actual
emissions (in million t
CO 2 eq. P. A.)		 Annual budget
emissions (in million t
CO 2 eq.)		 Remaining
total emissions budget
(in million tonnes of CO 2 equivalent)		 CO 2 day
2016 906 257 8092 April 15th
2017 908 238 7182 03rd of April
2018 853 * 217.5 6272 March 31***
2019 841 ** 198 5490 27th of March

* Estimate, ** Forecast, *** CO 2 Day 2018 was celebrated on March 28th and was subsequently changed to March 31st, taking current data into account.

Goals of the CO 2 day

The aim of the CO 2 Day in Germany is to educate the public about climate change and its extent and to mobilize the public to reduce CO 2 emissions quickly and efficiently and thus to achieve the 2-degree target set out in the Paris climate agreement. At the same time, the day is a measuring instrument for the effectiveness of German climate policy, measured against the key figure of CO 2 emissions.

Criticism of the CO 2 day

There is no consensus on the exact calculation of national CO 2 budgets. The question of how historical emissions should be assessed, which distinguish developing countries from industrialized countries, remains unanswered. The Federal Environment Ministry criticized the initiative's calculation method as "shaky". The initiative refers to the Paris climate protection agreement, which, unlike the natural gas initiative, does not claim fixed budgets for individual states. Instead, scientists have calculated the size of the remaining budget.

Critics also complain that CO 2 Day was brought to life by the natural gas industry. Like all other fossil fuels, natural gas is also responsible for global warming. The association Zukunft ERDGAS eV, on the other hand, maintains that natural gas is the most climate-friendly fossil fuel and that it can also be produced biogenically. The remaining budget could be used to generate two to three times as much electricity from gas-fired power plants as from lignite-fired power plants.

The methane emissions from natural gas production and distribution are also criticized , since methane is a significantly stronger greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, as well as the risk of so-called lock-in effects. For example, relying on natural gas as a bridge energy could result in the expansion of renewable energies being delayed. In the longer term, according to the Federal Environment Agency , fossil fuels may no longer be used at all, since natural gas also contributes to climate change. Similar statements were made by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research : Although the use of natural gas could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by around 30%, this is not enough to meet the agreed 2-degree target. To do this, the energy system must be practically completely CO 2 -free by 2050 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ H. Damon Matthews, Ken Caldeira : Stabilizing climate requires near-zero emissions . In: Geophysical Research Letters . tape 35 , 2008, doi : 10.1029 / 2007GL032388 . ; also Kai Niebert: Climate change cannot be negotiated with. In: Jörg Sommer, Michael Müller (Ed.): Below 2 degrees? What the world climate treaty really brings . Stuttgart 2016, 255–265, pp. 260f.
  2. ↑ Christiana Figueres et al: Three years to safeguard our climate . In: Nature . tape 546 , 2017, p. 593-595 , doi : 10.1038 / 546593a .
  3. ↑ Natural gas industry raises debate about CO 2 budget to Energate Messenger, April 10, 2017. Accessed March 27, 2018.
  4. ↑ Paris Agreement (pdf), UNFCCC 2015. Accessed March 27, 2018.
  5. ↑ Germany's CO 2 budget for 2017 has already been used up WAZ of April 8, 2017. Accessed on March 27, 2018.
  6. ↑ Fact sheet: The calculation of the CO2 day Zukunft ERDGAS 2019. Accessed on March 27, 2019.
  7. ↑ Germany reached its C = 2 limit on April 3rd. Zukunft ERDGAS 2017. Accessed on March 27th, 2018.
  8. ↑ How long do greenhouse gases stay in the air? The Guardian January 16, 2012. Retrieved March 27, 2018.
  9. ↑ Future Electricity System - Coal phase-out 2035 WWF 2017. Accessed on March 27, 2018.
  10. ↑ CO2 balance: From now on in the Miesen . In: Deutsche Welle , March 28, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  11. ↑ Climate protection report (p. 18), Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety 2016. Accessed on March 27, 2018.
  12. ↑ Future electricity system - coal exit 2035 , study by Öko-Institut and Prognos AG on behalf of WWF, January 2017.
  13. ↑ CO2 Day 2019: Germany at the limit Zukunft ERDGAS 2019. Accessed on March 27, 2019.
  14. ↑ How to divide up carbon budgets fairly CarbonBrief of September 22, 2014. Accessed on March 27, 2018.
  15. ↑ Germany's CO2 budget for 2018 has already been used up . In: Frankfurter Neue Presse , March 28, 2018. Accessed March 29, 2018.
  16. ↑ Upstream emissions from ERDGAS Zukunft ERDGAS 2016. Accessed on March 27, 2018.
  17. ↑ Pipeline gas as harmful as coal . In: klimaretter.info , February 3, 2018. Retrieved March 29, 2018.
  18. ↑ Germany's CO2 budget for 2017 has already been used up . In: Neue Ruhr Zeitung , April 8, 2017. Accessed March 29, 2018.