Overcoming the Global Energy and Climate Crisis – Methanol Economy and Soil Improvement Close the Carbon Cycle

Franz Josef Radermacher

Abstract

The global energy and climate crisis can be solved in a way that is compatible with growth and conducive to prosperity. The increasingly panicked public debates about an impending apocalypse, climate command economies, and the complete electrification of the mobility sector fail to do justice to the multidimensional nature of the challenge. In contrast, the approach described here allows Africa, India, and other emerging economies to follow China’s development path – without negative climate impacts. Using this approach, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) can be achieved by 2050. Three key elements must be combined: (1) the methanol economy, (2) soils as carbon sinks, and (3) development-promoting CO₂ compensation projects to implement the 2030 Agenda.

The carbon-based liquid fuel segment of the economy could be expanded by 50% by 2050 under the proposed strategy. By recycling carbon four times within a hydrogen/methanol economy, CO₂ emissions could be reduced to about 10 billion tons per year (compared to 34 billion tons per year today), even amid strong economic growth. This investment and transformation program could be implemented by the fossil energy sector, one of the world’s most powerful industries, by 2050. Annual investments in the methanol sector are estimated at around €600 billion per year.

Through massive global reforestation, especially on marginalized land in the tropics, the promotion of humus formation in agriculture (particularly in semi-arid regions), and the use of biochar, soils could become a carbon sink for the remaining 10 billion tons of CO₂ per year. This would also increase agricultural productivity – a necessity given the rapidly growing global food demand in a prosperous world with 10 billion people. In this way, the carbon cycle can be closed. Forest and agricultural projects play a key role in the Alliance for Development and Climate, launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2018.

In addition to international climate protection, this initiative particularly promotes development, thus addressing the social dimension of a sustainable future. High-quality projects in developing countries simultaneously generate co-benefits across all SDGs (Agenda 2030) and achieve positive climate effects. This approach offers great potential for ensuring that the world’s population reaches its peak of 10 billion by 2050 and then begins to decline gradually.

At the heart of this solution lies the methanol economy, powered by low-cost solar energy from the Earth’s sunbelt. Just as the invention of the steam engine 300 years ago unlocked the potential of coal for human prosperity, renewable energy combined with the solar potential of major deserts (Desertec 2.0) holds the key to leading humanity out of its current dead end in development, energy, and climate through a hydrogen/methanol economy.

Download: Methanol Economy and Soil Improvement (DE)

Image source: Philippe Roos (flickr) Ain-Beni-Mathar-2010-10-27-016