This Post was submitted by Climate Scorecard Germany Country Manager Zahi Badra
Germany Announces 65% Emissions Reduction by 2030 and Climate Neutrality by 2050
The last report of the federal environmental agency (UBA), published in March 2021, shows that by the end of 2020, Germany had reduced 40.8% of its emissions comparing to the 1990 levels. Thus, achieving its predefined goals of reducing 40% of its emissions by that year.
Furthermore, Germany has previously committed to a reduction of 55% of its emissions by 2030 and to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. These goals were recently updated by the federal government after a ruling of the supreme court, instructing the federal government to toughen its goals and to present a more detailed plan on how to achieve them. At the beginning of May, Environment minister Svenja Schulze announced the updated goals – a reduction of 65% by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2045.
As for the measures taken by the federal government, these have not been updated since we last reported on that topic six months ago and are still based on two strategic documents – the Federal Climate change act (2019), and the Climate Action Program 2030 (2019). According to recent analysis, the measures in the current action plan would only achieve a reduction of 51% by 2030, a gap of approximately 200 million tons CO2 equivalent, which means that new measures must be added to achieve the current goals.
An updated version of the action plan should be expected soon, as part of the reaction to the court ruling, and as a working plan from the current ruling parties, which are now behind on the polls pending the federal elections in September. Germany’s climate policy is a major topic for these elections, in which the Green Party are marked as potential winners for the first time in history.
As for the Paris Agreement, Germany does not make independent pledges to the agreement, but does so collectively as a part of the European Union. However, Germany’s goal of reducing emissions by 65% by 2030 exceeds the EU goal of a 55% reduction during this same time period.
Contact:
Svenja Schulze, Minister of the Environment
svenja.schulze@spd-muenster.de
Sources:
https://www.bundesregierung.de/breg-en/issues/climate-action
https://www.bmu.de/en/law/federal-climate-change-act/
Full Report: https://www.umweltbundesamt.de/sites/default/files/medien/5750/publikationen/2021-05-19_cc_44-2021_nir_2021_0.pdf
https://www.ft.com/content/75956e41-57b1-4c55-981e-aec7a21560a0
Image: Source: UBA, 2021