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RWE lignite power plant Niederaussem

Photo: Oliver Berg/dpa

In 2023, Germany will record the sharpest decline in greenhouse gas emissions since 1990. According to a report from the Federal Environment Agency (UBA), which was previously available to SPIEGEL, around 673 million tons of greenhouse gases were released in Germany last year.

That is 76 million tons less than in 2022 – a decrease of around ten percent.

The report also contains greenhouse gas projections from 2024 to 2030. By the end of the decade, according to the Climate Protection Act, emissions are expected to fall by at least 65 percent compared to 1990;

By 2045, Germany should be climate neutral, i.e. not emit more greenhouse gases than can be saved elsewhere.

According to UBA, the expected decline is currently almost 64 percent compared to 1990. This means that the German climate target for 2030 is within reach.

“Germany is on track – for the first time”

Previously only a reduction of 49 percent was expected.

»For the first time ever, the numbers show: Germany is on track – for the first time.

If we stay on course, we will achieve our 2030 climate goals," explains the Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, Robert Habeck.

This underlines that the measures that have now been taken are having an effect.

According to the calculations, the current climate protection gap of 1,100 million tons will be completely closed.

UBA President Dirk Messner explained: "Looking forward to 2030, I am confident that we can meet the national climate goals." A lot of progress has already been made in climate protection.

“We now see in our projections for 2030 that this gap will be closed if we continue to work so ambitiously on climate protection.”

Not all sectors achieve the goal

The Climate Protection Act sets annual sector targets for the energy sector, transport, industry, buildings, agriculture and the waste sector.

In previous years, the areas of transport and buildings had repeatedly missed the set targets.

This also applies to

transport

in 2023: the target was missed by 13 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalents.

That is three million tons more than the year before.

The UBA does not see climate protection measures as the “main driver of the small decline in emissions”, but rather the declining mileage in road freight transport.

Compared to 2022, car traffic increased slightly.

The

building sector

also did poorly again, albeit to a much lesser extent: with around 1.2 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalents, the annual target was also missed here.

According to UBA, the main drivers for the decline in emissions are energy savings, a fairly mild winter in 2023 and higher consumer prices.

The addition of heat pumps also had a positive effect.

The other sectors all met their targets: emissions in the

energy industry

fell by around 51.8 million tons of CO₂ equivalents compared to the previous year.

That is around 20 percent less than in the previous year.

This is due to the lower use of fossil fuels for electricity and heat production and primarily affects lignite and hard coal as well as natural gas.

In

industry

, emissions fell to around 155 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents - the sector exceeded its target with around 18 million tonnes.

The reason for this is, among other things, the poor economy last year.

Previously, sectors had to stick to their emission limits and the responsible ministry had to take rapid action if the values ​​were exceeded.

However, the federal government amended the law last year.

Compliance with climate targets will therefore no longer be checked retroactively according to different sectors such as transport, industry or agriculture - but will be directed towards the future, over a period of several years and across sectors.

That's why now only what counts formally is what's on the bottom line.

The federal government is also optimistic for 2030: According to the forecasts, far more savings will be made than originally assumed, especially in the energy sector and industry.

In the transport sector, however, there will be a cumulative reduction gap of 180 million tonnes of CO₂ equivalents by 2030 - and the building sector will also not comply with the requirements.

According to the calculations, this should be made up for by the other sectors.

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