Overcoming the international energy and climate crisis. Methanol economy and soil improvement can close the carbon cycle

The global energy and climate crisis can be solved in a way that is compatible with growth and promoting prosperity. The now almost panic-stricken public debates about the end of the world, a planned economy for the climate, the electrification of the entire mobility sector, etc. are not in any way doing justice to the multi-dimensionality of the challenge. The approach described, on the other hand, allows Africa, India and other emerging economies to follow Chìna’s development model - without massive negative impacts on the climate. Following this approach, the SDGs can be implemented by 2050. Three essential elements have to be combined: (1) Methanol economy, (2) soils as carbon stores and (3) carbon offsetting projects promoting SDG implementation. The part of the economy based on fossil fuels can be increased by 50% by 2050 with the proposed approach. By recycling carbon on average four times in the context of a hydrogen/methanol economy, CO2 emissions of the energy sector will be reduced to only about 10 billion tonnes per year (currently 34 billion tonnes per year) - despite significant economic growth. A corresponding investment and conversion program can be realized solely by the fossil energy sector, one of the most powerful economic sectors in the world, by 2050. The necessary investments in methanol and other synthetic fuels amount to around 600 billion EUR per year. Through persistent protection of the rainforests, massive worldwide reforestation, especially on degraded soils in the tropics, through fostering humus formation for agriculture, especially in semi-arid areas, through the use of biochar, etc., forests and soils can become a carbon sink for the remaining 10 billion tons of CO2 per year. At the same time, this increases agricultural productivity and will prove necessary anyway for the massively increasing demand for food in an envi-sioned world in prosperity with 10 billion people. All in all, the carbon cycle can be closed this way. Forestry and agricultural projects play a central role in the Alliance for Develop-ment and Climate launched by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) in 2018. In addition to international climate protection, the alliance also promotes development and thus the social aspect of the path into future. By means of high-quality projects in non-industrialized countries, co-benefits to all SDGs and positive ef-fects on the climate are achieved at the same time. This offers great opportunities for the goal of reaching a world population peak at 10 billion people in 2050, followed by a gradual decline afterwards. The methanol economy, and synthetic fuels in general are the key to the solution described. They are based on cheap desert electricity from the Earth’s sunbelt. Just as the invention of the steam engine 300 years ago was the foundation for fully unfolding the potential of coal to increase the prosperity of humankind, renewable energy technologies combined with the solar potential of large deserts (Desertec 2.0) are the key to getting humankind out of the current impasse regarding development, energy and climate - with a hydrogen/methanol economy as a major basis.