Germany saw a slowdown in momentum on climate action in 2025, according to a new report by the Agora Energiewende think tank.
While greenhouse gas emissions fell by 9 million tonnes compared with the previous year, or around 1.5%, this decline was less than half of that seen in previous years. In addition, while Germany met its national annual emissions target for 2025, the overall reduction was less than half as large as that recorded the previous year.
‘Years of insufficient progress’
According to Agora Energiewende, overall emissions reduction efforts were impacted by a rise in emissions from transport and buildings last year, following what it says have been ‘years of insufficient progress’ in the transition to electric vehicles and heat pumps.
A cold start to the year led to increased use of oil and natural gas for heating, leading to a 3.2% emissions increase from the buildings sector, while higher fuel consumption across the transport network saw emissions rise 1.4% year-on-year.
As a result, Germany missed its European climate targets set under the Effort Sharing Regulation by around 30 million tonnes of CO₂, meaning that if current trends continue, it will need to purchase additional allowances from other EU member states, which could be worth up to €34 billion by 2030.
A positive, however, was the increase in electricity generated from solar power, with solar installations generating more electricity in Germany last year than coal, lignite or gas-fired power plants for the first time.
This increase in solar generation helped incase the share of renewables in gross electricity consumption by one percentage point to 55.3%.
Energy transition
“Wind and solar energy remained the backbone of the energy transition in Germany in 2025,” commented Julia Bläsius, director of Agora Energiewende Germany. “However, the power sector – until now the main driver of emission reductions – cannot permanently compensate for the shortcomings in rolling out climate technologies in transport and buildings.
“At the same time, sales trends for electricity-based technologies such as electric cars and heat pumps are rising internationally, and Germany also saw a slight uptick in 2025. The federal government should leverage this tailwind: by strengthening domestic demand – and with it also industry – Germany can catch up in climate-neutral technologies.” Read more here.
