Germany’s Budget Cuts Leave Heavy Industry Stuck with Dirty Tech

In Geseke, a small town in Germany’s western industrial heartland, plans to launch a large-scale carbon capture project at a local cement plant have been put on ice.

Operator Heidelberg Materials AG had received European Union subsidies for the green project that’s set to save 700,000 tons of carbon emissions annually, and planned to start construction next year. But the company — which last month started capturing and liquefying emissions in Norway — is no longer staking out a timeline for its German project because the conditions for a prompt, final investment decision aren’t given.