About the KEI
Since 2019, Zukunft – Umwelt – Gesellschaft (ZUG) gGmbH has operated the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI) in Cottbus (some 100 km south of Berlin) on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK). The KEI provides support and funding for the mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions especially for energy-intensive industries in Germany. The competence centre’s work focuses on producers of basic materials such as steel, chemicals, cement, lime and non-ferrous metals, as well as other relevant parts of industries with process-related emissions.
The Climate Change Act from the Federal Government sets a clear target: greenhouse gas neutrality by 2045. For energy-intensive industries in particular, this is a complex challenge that involves investments amounting to several billions of euros. The competence centre’s work provides climate change mitigation support to industrial businesses in Germany, ensuring that highly skilled jobs are retained into the future.
Project funding
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action is using the Federal Fund for Industry and Climate Action (Bundesförderung Industrie und Klimaschutz, BIK) to support climate-friendly projects in German industry. Decarbonisation is closely associated with the storage and usage of CO2. Accordingly, these topics are therefore organised in two funding modules with a shared funding directive. Module 1 ’decarbonisation of industry‘ provides funding for approaches to decarbonisation that aim to achieve reductions to greenhouse gas emissions in manufacturing that are as large-scale and permanent as possible. On behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, KEI manages the Module 1.
Think tank
Copyright: Erik Krüger
The transformation of industry is a huge and complex challenge whose knock-on effects along the value chain are felt in many other areas of the economy. Therefore, alongside its focus on the manufacturing sector, the Competence Centre also works with government and research, as well as the general public. For this group of actors, the KEI offers a platform for interdisciplinary, industry-wide dialogue. This helps to consolidate and transfer the knowledge needed for decarbonisation so as to accelerate innovation.
Cluster Decarbonisation in Industries (CDI)
The KEI also works together with other institutions in the Cluster Decarbonisation in Industries with the aim of contributing solutions to achieve net-zero manufacturing. The initiators are the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU), the Fraunhofer Research Institution for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Systems IEG, the Institute of Low-Carbon Industrial Processes at the German Aerospace Center (DLR) and the KEI. The KEI also operates the CDI Coordination Office in Cottbus.
National Contact Point (NCP) Innovation Fund
The Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (BMWK) actively supports the application of German projects to the EU Innovation Fund. To this end, it has set up a National Contact Point, which is operated by the Competence Centre on Climate Change Mitigation in Energy-Intensive Industries (KEI) and is currently being established. German companies can contact the National Contact Point (NCP) Innovation Fund if they have any questions about the programme.