The main sources of greenhouse gas emissions in Germany #Climate Change

In the Kyoto Protocol Germany committed to reduce the emissions of all six Kyoto gases¹ by 21 % compared to the base year (1990 or 1995) by 2012. In 2007 Germany reduced its emissions by 22.4 % compared to the corresponding level. Some main causes for the reductions are an economical reorganization in the first years of the eastern states of Germany with the reduced use of brown coal and the reinforced development of renewable energies. Furthermore the government conducts an active climate protection policy and implemented long term laws to reduce emissions of Kyoto gases.

CO₂ was accountable for 87.9 % of greenhouse-gas emissions in 2007 and therefore the main greenhouse gas (GHG) emitted by Germany. The second largest emitted share with 5.8 % is nitrous oxide. Methane amounts to 4.4 % and the other Kyoto gases come to a total of 1.8 % of all emitted GHGs by Germany. The following figure illustrated the successful progress of Germany’s reduction of GHGs from 1990 to 2007, at the same time growing its economy by 41.7 % and its population by 3.1 %.

Source: United Nations (2010), page 14 & 66

The main sources of GHG emissions in Germany in 2007 were the Energy Industries which emitted 388.13 million of tons of CO₂ equivalent, followed by Transport with 154.30 and Manufacturing Industries and Construction with 121.44 million of tons of CO₂ equivalent. The following graph illustrates the distribution of the total emissions of 979.87 million of tons of CO₂ equivalent:

Source: European Environment Agency (2011), own figure

Interesting are the various assumed climate and energy policies for the forecasts of the emissions in the Fifth National Report of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany like:

• Increased share of electricity production from renewable energies;
• changes in the EU emissions trading scheme, like including industrial N₂0 emissions within the trading scheme;
• additional requirements for fuels;
• less electricity consumption due to more energy effective measures; and
• Governmental support for CO₂-oriented building-remediation.

¹The Kyoto gases are: carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulphur hexafluoride (SF6)

Resources, last accessed 28.01.2012:

European Environment Agency (2011) EEA greenhouse gas – data viewer, click here to see the predefined views, http://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/data/data-viewers/greenhouse-gases-viewer

Umweltbundesamt (2011) Thema: Klimaänderungen, http://www.umweltbundesamt-daten-zur-umwelt.de/umweltdaten/public/theme.do?nodeIdent=2842

United Nations (2010) Fifth National Report of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, http://unfccc.int/resource/docs/natc/deu_nc5_resubmit.pdf

United Nations (without year) Land Use, Land-Use Change and Forestry (LULUCF), http://unfccc.int/methods_and_science/lulucf/items/3060.php

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