As part of the Hamburg Science Summit 2024 of the Körber Foundation on September 19, 2024, the President of the Max Planck Society Patrick Cramer moderated a lively and in-depth roundtable discussion on the topic “Green Chemistry - Towards a Closed Anthropogenic Carbon Cycle”.
The distinguished panelists included Walter Leitner (Director of the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Energy Conversion), Constanze Neumann (Max Planck Institute for Coal Research), Javier Pérez-Ramírez (ETH Zurich) and Silvia Vignolini (Director of the Max Planck Institute of Colloids and Interfaces). Together, they highlighted the scientific principles, political framework conditions, economic challenges and social changes associated with “green chemistry”.
“Green Chemistry defines the scientific basis for sustainable chemistry – and even more, for chemistry as the basis for a sustainable future,” Walter Leitner emphasized during the panel.
The discussion focused on how Europe's industrial production can be decarbonized using non-fossil carbon sources such as carbon dioxide, biomass and recycled materials. These three pillars should help to shape the transition from a linear chemical industry to a resilient circular economy. The participants agreed that green chemistry, in particular through the use of cutting-edge catalysis research, is already making an important contribution to Europe's economic development and will play a key role in the future on the road to a climate-neutral industry.