Germany misses climate targets as emissions barely fall in 2025 | Germany
Greenhouse gas emissions in Germany have not yet reached the targets set by the climate protection law and have hardly decreased in 2025.
Emissions fell by just 0.1 percent last year compared to the previous year, according to data from the German Environment Agency.
The country’s emissions in 2025 were equivalent to 649 million tonnes of CO2worse than those forecast by the Agora Energiewende expert group, which anticipated a drop of 1.5% over one year.
In 2024, a larger decline of 3.4% was recorded.
German Environment Minister Carsten Schneider criticized the lack of improvement at a conference in Berlin on Saturday.
The Social Democrat said that despite growing acceptance of electric cars and heat pumps, overall progress was “too slow” and urged citizens to speed up their adoption of renewable energy sources for both environmental and safety reasons.
“What benefits the climate also increases our security and economic strength,” he said. “Each additional kilowatt hour of renewable energy makes our country less dependent on oil and gas and our energy supply more secure. »
Despite this, Schneider and the German Environment Agency remain optimistic that the country can meet the 2030 climate target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% compared to 1990.
Schneider welcomed the “growing enthusiasm for climate protection technologies” such as electric cars and heat pumps.
“And there are more newly approved wind projects than ever before. This gives hope that progress will accelerate again in the years to come,” he said.
Emissions will have to decrease by an average of 42 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent per year from 2026, more than 40 times the reduction recorded last year, to achieve the 2030 reduction target.
In 2025, Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions were 48% lower than in the 1990 base year.
Schneider said it was “particularly urgent” to reduce emissions in the transport and building sectors – where emissions increased last year – to avoid costly purchasing of emission allowances from other EU member states or fines.
The pursuit of climate objectives in Germany, a priority of the previous government of social democrat Olaf Scholz, seems less assured under the mandate of conservative Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
His government, in power since May 2025, instead advocates a relaxation of environmental standards.
Germany is Europe’s largest economy and manufacturing powerhouse, and globally it is behind the economies of the United States and China in terms of size.
