By Markus Wacket and Friederike Heine
BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 3% in 2024 compared to the previous year, climate think tank Agora said in a report on Tuesday, attributing the decline to economic weakness, mild weather and successful climate policies.
Emissions in Europe’s largest economy dipped to 656 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent last year, marking a 48% decrease from 1990 and undershooting an annual cap by more than 5%, according to the report.
Germany is seeking to reduce overall emissions by 65% by 2030 compared to 1990, and the country’s 2024 emissions were 36 million tons lower than the annual cap stipulated by its Climate Protection Act.
Transport and buildings, however, have done little to implement climate protection policies and failed to stay within their respective sectoral caps in 2024, according to the report.
“If Germany does not take action in these sectors, there is a risk of fines being imposed by Brussels,” Agora director Simon Mueller said during a press conference.
Though Germany’s economic downturn is the main contributor to lower industrial emissions, Mueller said that recent climate protection measures in the electricity sector, such as increased use of renewable energy, were having an ever-greater impact.
Record wind and solar energy production covered around 55% of consumption in 2024, which “shows that climate policy works when it is implemented consistently”, according to the report.
Economy Minister Robert Habeck called the figures a success, saying that the task now was to stay on course and to ensure reliability and planning security for the economy and consumers.
Habeck said that measures required to further reduce emissions included lowering grid fees, abolishing electricity tax and continuing to ramp up e-mobility.
(Reporting by Markus Wacket, writing by Friederike Heine, editing by Rod Nickel, Kirsten Donovan)
