Katja Scharpwinkel

We have all experienced the devastating effect Covid-19 has had on our families, communities and businesses. With the numbers of infections rising again in countries and cities around the world, governments are reinforcing or re-imposing restrictions on the lives of their citizens. To contain the resurgence of the virus, we continue to focus on ‘flattening the curve’ to slow down the rate of infections and save lives.

As the world is desperately trying to deal with the Covid-pandemic, another curve is surely trending upwards - the carbon curve, also known as the Keeling Curve. The Keeling Curve is a graph that represents the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO²) in the earth's atmosphere. In the lead up to the (virtual) G20 hosted by Saudi Arabia, this is the curve that the Energy, Sustainability & Climate taskforce of the Business 20 (B20), of which BASF is a member, has been focusing on.

The Keeling Curve

Source: Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

Just like the measures aimed at flattening the SARS-CoV-2 curve, we need decisive action, research and innovation and global collaboration to flatten this carbon curve. It is high time, because there is no herd immunity that can protect the health of our planet.

Many of the root causes of climate change also increase the risk of pandemics. Every child born today will have their health defined by climate change, according to the November 2019 report on health and climate change in the British medical journal The Lancet. Therefore, a post-Covid-19 world must focus on both public health care and on designing a greener, more resilient world with a lower carbon footprint.

During the G20 this week, the B20 taskforce for Energy, Sustainability & Climate will present a policy paper urging the G20 governments to accelerate transitions to a low-carbon future through decisive policies and incentives in line with the goal of the Paris Agreement, which celebrates its five-year anniversary this year.

This G20 is an opportunity to progress the green agenda and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through renewable energy, zero and low-emission transport and energy efficiency.

As the Energy, Sustainability and Climate taskforce, we adapted quickly to a new way of working when faced with the Covid-challenge. Although I was looking forward to my first visit to Saudi Arabia to meet the other taskforce members after months of working together virtually and wanted to use the opportunity to meet some of our Saudi Arabian customers as well as the BASF team there, I am proud of the results that we as a team of 130 members from G20 countries have achieved: a loud and clear proposal for immediate action on climate protection.

All G20 members should commit to achieve carbon neutrality in the second half of the century and, by 2050, accelerate policy implementation towards this aim. The G20 countries represent 85% of the world’s economic output. The G20 countries should therefore take the lead in achieving the Paris Agreements goals and drive the global energy transition by promoting efficiency, renewables and cleaner and alternative fuels.

In addition, the taskforce urges G20 members to advance, scale and deploy technologies and innovation to transform to low emission economies and build on circular economy solutions. Countries must also make use of predictable and effective enabling frameworks – such as carbon pricing. This would level the playing field and address freeriding and the fear of competitiveness losses.

According to a recent study conducted by the Boston Consulting Group, climate action can produce a +/-1% GDP per capita impact by 2050 while uncurbed climate change can lead to a loss of 30% or more in GDP per capita in 2100 for many governments around the world, including for the G20 members.

For the private sector, on the other hand, Covid presents a key rational to embed sustainability and circularity in their business models and invest in a lower emissions portfolio. It is an opportunity to create a fairer, more sustainable future by addressing some of the biggest challenges the world is facing today.

This is what BASF has for the past quarter of a century been focused on. When BASF adopted its ‘Vision 2010’, which oriented the company to the principles of sustainable development in 1994, we were one of the first companies worldwide to do so. A pioneer.

Where do we stand with this today? We have already halved our total global greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 to today, while doubling the production volume during the same period. We have committed to achieving CO² neutral growth until 2030. This means we will decouple our greenhouse gas emissions from organic growth. Any additional emissions from new production sites will therefore have to be offset by further reductions. This will require a reduction of the emission intensity of BASF’s operations by an estimated 30%.

Source: BASF

To achieve our ambition, we will continue with our operational excellence measures and shift our energy mix towards renewable energy. We also established a carbon management R&D program that introduces fundamentally new low-emission pathways for our biggest CO² sources. These primarily involve our base products such as olefins from our steam crackers, hydrogen and methanol as well as capture and reuse of waste carbon to make new, useful everyday items.

We also fully support our customers in their efforts to achieve climate goals. We have developed a digital application to calculate the cradle-to-gate product carbon footprint (PCF) for 45,000 of our sales products. By the end of 2021, we will be able to provide PCFs for our global portfolio. Our customers will thus receive valuable information about the extent to which BASF materials contribute to the carbon footprint of their business activities and their own final products.

Source: BASF

We are closely working with our customers, suppliers and other value chain partners to tackle the impacts of climate change and reduce emissions, but even closer multi-lateral collaboration is needed for a post-Covid green recovery. G20 governments should actively facilitate a shift towards the circular carbon economy and promote circular practices to lower emissions.

Our new normal must be one that is more sustainable and more resilient to the challenges of climate change, and it is incumbent on all businesses and governments to work together to make this happen.

Katja Scharpwinkel

Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rheinland-Pfalz, Deutschland

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Berufserfahrung

BASF

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Ausbildung

Universität Münster