Despite increased emissions in some cases: Germany achieves the climate target for 2022

Germany has achieved its climate target for 2022 and emitted fewer greenhouse gases than in the previous year. This is mainly due to a decline in industry, while sectors such as transport and energy emitted more.

Germany emitted fewer greenhouse gases overall last year and thus achieved its climate target. Emissions fell by 1.9 percent to 746 million tons compared to the previous year, according to the Federal Environment Agency.

Problem areas: energy, transport, buildings

However, not all sectors have achieved their climate targets: in the energy sector, for example, gas consumption has fallen, but more coal has been burned. Energy emissions increased by 4.4 percent to 256 million tons.

The transport sector also missed its climate targets. Emissions rose by 0.7 percent to 148 million tons of greenhouse gases. In the building sector, emissions fell by 5.3 percent to 112 million tons, but the sector still missed the climate target.

decline thanks to industry

The fact that the overall target was nevertheless achieved is due to a sharp reduction in emissions from industry. Here, the amount of greenhouse gases emitted fell by 10.4 percent to 164 million tons. According to the Federal Environment Agency, this was due to the fact that fewer pigs were kept and less mineral fertilizer was used.

Share of renewables continues to grow – but too slowly

According to the Federal Office, the share of renewable energies in gross final energy consumption rose to more than 20 percent for the first time. Gross final energy consumption refers to the consumption of electricity, heat and fuel. In gross electricity consumption, which only relates to the electricity sector, the share of renewables was 46.2 percent.

The President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, nevertheless warned to hurry: “We must manage to install three times as much capacity as before in order to increase the share of renewables in electricity generation to 80 percent by 2030.” Because in order to achieve the climate goals of the federal government, “emissions must now be reduced by six percent per year”. This means a drastic acceleration of the expansion, because since 2010 the reduction per year has been less than two percent.

Ministries must present immediate measures

The emission data from the Federal Office are now being checked by the Expert Council for Climate Issues, which has one month to do so. The ministries responsible for transport and buildings then have three months to present an immediate program to achieve the climate targets.