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Wine contributes to the greenhouse effect like all consumer goods. However, vintners and traders can influence the climate balance of their product. And climate-conscious wine lovers definitely appreciate that.

Thanks to carbonic acid! Without it, there would be no sparkling wine, and only with it does champagne sparkle so beautifully! Carbon dioxide dissolved in sparkling wine is a pleasure. Elsewhere in viticulture, the gas with the sum formula CO2 is rather notorious as a killer: Vine cultivation and vineyard care, harvesting, vinification and bottling, and above all the various transports all add up to a lot of climate-damaging emissions.

Like many things we produce, use or enjoy every day, the production of wine as a luxury food also leaves unhealthy traces in the earth's habitat system. The greenhouse effect is not the only, but globally most threatening consequence. It has long been clear that we will only solve the problem with a different consumption style. This also confronts vintners, trade and wine lovers with more and more urgent questions: How can we make wine consumption climate-friendly? And which wine is good for climate-conscious consumers?

In the carbon footprint of the globalised wine trade, transport is a particularly significant factor. 500 grams of wine bottles and 900 grams of sparkling wine contribute significantly to the industry's CO2 emissions. This has prompted the Champagne regional committee to recently present a 65 gram lighter, pressure-stable bottle. This could make Champagne, a luxury product, more climate-friendly. Also recently, Tesco, the world's fourth largest retailer and one of the UK's largest wine importers, unveiled a 40% lighter wine bottle. In widespread use, it could improve the industry's carbon footprint even more significantly.

Transport-related emissions from a bottle of wine generally suggest more energy-efficient transport, but especially short distances. Tyler Coleman of the California Wine Institute, however, doubts that regional origin is always the most climate-friendly choice for wine. His study "Red, White and "Green": The Cost of Carbon in the Global Wine Trade" calculates that on the east coast of the USA, for instance in New York, it is more climate-friendly to drink wine shipped from Bordeaux than wine carted from California.

However, this assessment can hardly be generalized. This is not least because Coleman's analysis starts with the transport of the grapes to the winepress. The material and energy input in the vineyard is not included in this calculation.

The CO2 balance, which the German winery Reh Kendermann had calculated in 2009 for its wine export to the British market, only reaches from the fermentation tank to the wine rack. This was the company's reaction to the British interest in the "carbon footprint". As a matter of fact, the "CO2 footprint", which is called here in Germany, is appearing as a climate label on more and more products, not only in the UK.

A good approach, say experts. But in the absence of internationally valid standards, its usefulness is still limited. The calculation is intended to determine the contribution of a single consumer product to the greenhouse effect. This is done as the total weight of CO2 equivalents emitted, i.e. as the sum of all greenhouse gases produced during the product life cycle converted into the climate impact of the CO2. But even if one leaves aside for the moment how the measurement result came about or how generalizable it is, curiosity about CO2 balances will only lead to more climate protection if it sets reduction processes in motion in companies and the corresponding consumer information allows a clear distinction to be made between products manufactured in a way that is not harmful to the climate.

Vintner Birgit Braunstein had such goals in mind when she thought about biodynamics and climate protection on her vineyard in Burgenland, Austria. A comparative study by the University of Siena in Tuscany in 2008, for example, showed how much greater the CO2 savings potential of organic farming is compared to conventional farming. And for Braunstein, too, the conversion to organic cultivation actually turned out to be a very decisive factor in the improved climate balance of her production. In spring 2009, she was the first vintner in the German-speaking area to offer red wine which she calls "climate neutral". In doing so, she sought the advice of experts. The company Climate Partner awards the title "climate neutral" to wines or wineries when defined reduction targets have been reached and residual emissions have been offset in certified emissions trading.

The latter makes Jakob Bilabel slightly uncomfortable. Bilabel heads the company Thema1 in Berlin, which as an independent "think-do-tank" organizes the dialogue on promising paths to the global "low carbon society" between climate researchers, environmentalists and companies. "Climate neutrality cannot exist," he says. "Even emissions compensated with payments are not out of the world". The initiative of organic winegrowers like Birgit Braunstein, who are committed to climate protection, should nevertheless be appreciated, Bilabel thinks. However, he always advises climate-conscious wine lovers to take a critical look behind the scenes, even if more bottle labels will say "climate neutral" in the future. And maybe even just then.

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