Robert Habeck, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection, completed a full program at this year's Hannover Messe and showed great interest in the solutions in personal discussions with the entrepreneurs at the individual stations. At the event, the leading Green politician sought and found the technological and economic policy foundations for the desired energy transition in Germany and worldwide.

Shortly after Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz left the trade fair on Monday evening, Habeck, together with the German Steel Federation (WVS), presented the new label for climate-friendly steel to other industry representatives. After a visit to the Norway stand, the day ended with a European policy evening organized by the VDMA and Deutsche Messe. Habeck continued early the next morning at the Industry 4.0 platform.

Common energy policy in the North Sea

A premiere in Hanover was the "Renewable Dialogue - North Sea Energy Hub" conference on April 23, at which politicians and experts from Germany and the partner country Norway discussed the energy transition with a focus on political framework conditions as well as technological developments and applications. The Renewable Dialogue is an initiative of the state of Lower Saxony and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection in cooperation with Deutsche Messe.
In his keynote speech, the Federal Minister of Economics presented the current status of the energy transition as a success and pointed out that Germany had phased out nuclear energy without any major supply problems. According to Habeck, the problems lie in the supply of fossil resources, not electricity.

Norway's special role

Special thanks once again went to the Norwegian partners, who were also represented at the conference by Energy Minister Terje Aasland. Norway has an important role to play in the transition to climate-neutral energy sources. The country is a technological leader in the field of "blue hydrogen". Although this produces CO2 emissions, these are not released into the atmosphere thanks to carbon capture and storage (CCS). The process is regarded as an important bridging technology on the road to climate neutrality.

The result of the conference is closer networking between German and Norwegian institutions and companies, for which several declarations of intent were also signed on the conference stage.

Innovations at the stand

The very first stop on the Minister's traditional stand tour took up the topic of CCS once again: At its stand in Hall 6, automation specialist Bosch Rexroth demonstrated how CCS works and showed the interested minister the compact pumps required to inject the captured CO2 into the seabed from its own range.

Practical skills were in demand at the Turck stand in Hall 9: the automation experts let Robert Habeck control a robot through a portal. At the Pilz stand a few stands away, Susanne Kunschert and her brother Thomas Pilz, board members of the family-run company, welcomed the minister with the topic of security and reported on the serious cyberattack that their company had to survive in October 2019 - without paying the criminal attackers a ransom. Habeck was able to test the industrial security solutions that emerged from this experience at the stand.

The topic of artificial intelligence took center stage at the Pepperl+Fuchs stand a few meters away; like the German Chancellor the day before, Habeck was also able to try out the use of AI for system control and safety. Pepperl+Fuchs also uses AI to fulfill the extensive documentation requirements that plague German SMEs. A clear message to the minister.

In Hall 11, two classic medium-sized family companies, Lapp and Harting, awaited visitors. Lapp showed that corn plant residue is just as suitable as a base material for cable sheathing as petroleum-based materials. At the Harting stand, the focus was then appropriately on connector technology. At the end of his tour, Habeck made a stop at the start-ups at the trade fair and encouraged the young entrepreneurs.