17 October 2024 | Dr Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, has handed over the first Carbon Contracts for Difference to 15 German industrial companies. In doing so, Germany is creating planning security for companies – while also pioneering the transformation.

On Tuesday, 15 October 2024, Dr Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, has handed over the first signed Carbon Contracts for Difference to German companies in energy-intensive industries. These companies had previously successfully applied in a competition for state funding for their transformation projects.

Now the companies can start implementing these projects and thereby convert their production to significantly lower-emission processes – an important step towards climate neutrality, which, according to the Federal Climate Change Act, must be achieved by 2045 at the latest.

Companies from various sectors of energy-intensive industry across Germany took part in the first bidding process of the new funding programme. These included both small companies with a turnover of around 50 million euros and multinational corporations with a turnover of more than five billion euros.

Of the 17 companies that submitted a bid, 15 were accepted. Five of the funded companies plan to decarbonise their production processes using hydrogen – and are thus relying on a key technology for the transition to a more sustainable industry.

The signed Carbon Contracts for Difference will reach a maximum funding volume of around 2.8 billion euros. The planned transformations from this first bidding round of climate protection contracts could save up to 17 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents over the next 15 years.

But that's not all: a second bidding process for Carbon Contracts for Difference is set to start before the end of this year. The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action plans to provide a low double-digit billion amount for the transformation projects that succeed in the competition against other projects in this second round.

How Carbon Contracts for Difference work

Carbon Contracts for Difference support industrial companies in investing in climate-friendly production facilities and operating them in the long term. The companies are protected against price risks (e.g. for hydrogen or CO₂ certificates) and additional costs are offset.

In this way, the Carbon Contracts for Difference create a secure framework in Germany and provide companies with planning security for the necessary investments in climate-friendly production processes. In addition, the companies not only save large quantities of greenhouse gases directly in the course of their transformation, but also trigger the urgently needed market transformation.

Names of the companies that signed a Carbon Contract for Difference after the first bidding process:

• BASF SE
• DREWSEN SPEZIALPAPIERE GmbH & Co. KG
• H&R Chemisch-Pharmazeutische Spezialitäten GmbH
• Kimberley-Clark GmbH
• Knauf Insulation GmbH
• Nordenham Metall GmbH
• Papierfabrik Adolf Jass GmbH & Co. KG
• Saint-Gobain Glass Deutschland GmbH
• Saint-Gobain ISOVER G+H AG
• Schmiedewerke Gröditz GmbH
• Schumacher Packaging GmbH
• Südzucker AG
• tesa Werk Hamburg GmbH
• Wienerberger GmbH
• Ziegel- und Klinkerwerke Janinhoff GmbH & Co. KG