Today, the Bundestag passed the Carbon Dioxide Storage Act. Wolfgang Große Entrup, Director General of the German Chemical Industry Association (VCI), praised the decision:
“Finally, the starting signal has been given for important climate protection technologies such as the industrial capture, storage, and utilization of CO₂. This should be the guiding principle for German climate policy: not to get lost in political small-scale wrangling, but to pragmatically enable key building blocks of transformation. The federal government must now keep its foot fully on the accelerator. The CO₂ pipeline network must be planned, approved, and built at turbo speed — and publicly funded. We can no longer afford start-up difficulties. The necessary storage facilities must be developed sooner rather than later.”
VCI Background Information
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), climate targets can only be achieved with technologies for the capture, storage, and utilization of CO₂. At the same time, these technologies are a central building block for the cost-efficient transformation of Germany as an industrial location.
CO₂ is one of three substitute raw materials for fossil sources such as crude oil for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Every gram of carbon that can be kept in circulation through CCU does not need to be newly extracted from fossil sources or injected underground through CCS. For chemical companies, however, the storage of CO₂ is also an important transformation building block.
The VCI is Europe’s largest association for chemicals and pharmaceuticals. With its 23 trade associations and 7 regional associations, it represents the interests of around 2,300 companies — from global players to highly specialized small and medium-sized enterprises. With revenues of 240 billion euros in 2024 and more than 560,000 employees in Germany, the sector is one of the strongest drivers of innovation, prosperity, and the future. For a strong chemical and pharmaceutical industry today and tomorrow, the VCI is active in Germany, Europe, and worldwide.
