DW - Germany's GHG Output Falls For 1st Time In 4 Years; Hitting 2020 Target Still Impossible

Germany's Environment Ministry announced Tuesday that the country emitted 4.2 percent less carbon dioxide in 2018 than it did in 2017. The figure represents a 30.6 percent drop over 1990. It is the first significant reduction after four years of stagnation.

Renewables played a major role in 38-million-ton reduction, which environmental authorities say avoided roughly 184 million tons of emissions compared to fossil fuels producing the same amount of energy. In all, Germany emitted 868.7 metric tons of carbon.

Although the news of emission reductions and the role of renewables was welcome, many, including Environment Minister Svenja Schulze, pointed out that exceptionally warm weather was largely responsible for the drop. Karsten Smid of the environmental group Greenpeace welcomed the news, but said, "Germans simply heated less." Others, such as Michael Schäfer of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) spoke of the "disastrous results" of German environmental policy.

Opposition politician and Green Party environmental expert Lisa Badum called the reduction "a drop in the bucket," demanding that the government "take a much more robust approach" to emissions reductions, including steps toward an "immediate phase-out of coal." Though automobile emissions went down minimally, most of the savings came from residential housing, where citizens heated less.

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https://www.dw.com/en/german-greenhouse-gas-emissions-fall-for-first-time-in-four-years/a-48167150