On October 27, 2025, experts came together for the third plenary session of IN4climate.NRW in Gelsenkirchen – including VDMA NRW.
A competitive and climate-neutral industrial location requires fundamentally new production processes, improved infrastructures and suitable framework conditions. In order to shape this change together with companies, science and the state government, the state of NRW launched the IN4climate.NRW initiative in 2018.
As a working platform, IN4climate.NRW provides important impetus for the industrial transformation. The think tank shows concrete ways in which a climate-neutral industry can become a reality. The focus is on the development of innovative approaches and practical solutions for a sustainable, competitive economy – and their broad implementation.
The event was part of the consolidation of the NRW Industry Pact.
Results of the plenary session:
- Restructuring of the working methods: Agile methods such as project-based sprints should enable a faster response to political and economic developments.
- Focus on four central topics: Hydrogen economy, carbon economy, climate-neutral process heat and circular raw material security.
- Systemic approaches to solutions: Industry, science and politics jointly develop overarching strategies for climate-neutral value chains.
- Roadmap for transformation: The aim remains to develop sector-specific transformation paths for a climate-neutral industry in NRW.
- Expansion of the partner network: The chambers of industry and commerce are new to the project and will share the results with their networks. In total, over 70 companies and associations are participating.
- Scientific support: The SCI4climate.NRW competence center under the direction of the Wuppertal Institute provides scientific support for the initiative.
Further information can be found here: IN4climate.NRW think tank