Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) is coordinating the new CDRterra funding measure of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). Germany aims at becoming climate-neutral by 2045. However, even massive reductions in emissions will no longer be enough to achieve this goal: "To limit the increase in average global temperatures to 1.5 °C, it now seems that we have no choice but to deploy methods that will generate what are termed 'negative emissions'," explains Professor Julia Pongratz, Chair of Physical Geography and Land-Use Systems at LMU's Department of Geography. "Using negative emissions means that we have to find ways to actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere - through reforestation or technical processes, for example - and then store it permanently."
The BMBF program brings together ten interdisciplinary consortia involving more than 100 researchers. They will comprehensively and systematically investigate the ecological, technological, economic, political and societal feasibility of the different methods of removing CO2. Potential conflicts with other Sustainable Development Goals, for example concerning resources such as water and land, will also be taken into consideration. LMU is leading the overarching CO2 Removal Synthesis and Transfer Project CDRSynTra, which will bundle the findings of the individual research projects.
