Scorecard summary:
Fulfilment of Rio Conference Commitment - Green
Current Government Position on Climate Change -Green
Per Capita CO2 Emissions - Yellow (10.96 metric tons per person in 1992)
National CO2 Emissions - Red (878 million metric tons in 1992)
OVERALL ASSESSMENT:
Good performance thanks, in large part, to
national
reunification. Politically committed to continue to reduce emissions
during the
next century, could take a stronger leadership role at international climate
treaty negotiations.
NATIONAL CLIMATE PROTECTION GOAL:
Germany wants to reduce its
CO2 emissions by
25 percent and its other greenhouse gas emissions (based on global warming
potentials) by 50 percent by 2005. Within the Climate Convention,
Germany is
opting for a 10 percent CO2 cut in 2005 and 15-20 percent cut by 2010 for all
Annex-1 countries. Germany is determined to play a leading role in
securing a
greenhouse gas reduction protocol at the Climate Summit in Kyoto.
SPECIFIC FEATURES:
German emission-reduction efforts have
benefited considerably
from reunification and by 1996 Germany had achieved a 13 percent cut in
its 1990
level of CO2 emissions. CO2 accounts for about 80 percent of Germany's
greenhouse gas emissions, most of which come from burning fossil fuels. The
power sector and space heating are each responsible for about one third,
and the
transport sector for almost one quarter, of the country's CO2 emissions.
All the cuts in greenhouse gases have occurred in former East Germany
following industrial restructuring, and shifts from the inefficient lignite
power supply towards natural gas. CO2 emissions in eastern Germany
declined by
45 percent in six years, whereas emissions in the former West Germany
rose by 2
percent in the same period. Projections show cuts in CO2 of 9.6 percent in
Germany in the year 2000.
NEGATIVE FEATURES:
New research shows that German CO2 emissions
may
not drop further by 2005 and may even increase in the post-2000 period,
particularly in
the New Laender if no additional measures are implemented.
Overcapacities in
electricity supply (which is 30 percent nuclear) prevent the introduction of
least-cost planning techniques. No energy or carbon tax is planned. The
1995
ordinance on residential heat consumption is far below the technical
standards
implemented in other countries and the recently-agreed law on
liberalisation of
electricity markets may undermine more costly climate-friendly power
production
from smaller utilities.
Coal industry policy in Germany is led by economic and not climate or
social considerations. The government supports plans for replacing old
lignite
power plants with new ones. And proposals for reducing hard coal subsidies
would only substitute cheap coal imports for expensive domestic coal.
Influenced by national economic interests, Germany has blocked or
weakened a number of proposed climate protection measures in the European
Union.
These include the Directive on integrated resource planning (rational
planning
techniques), the European Commission's proposal to reduce CO2 from cars,
and a
European tax on CO2 and energy. In 1996, German opposition also
contributed to
funding being slashed for the EU's energy-saving programme, SAVE II.
POSITIVE FEATURES:
With the "feed-in law" for renewable energy,
the share of
wind energy in Germany had increased to about 1 percent of power generation
capacity at the end of 1996. The March 1996 voluntary agreements between
various industries and the government aim to reduce specific CO2
emissions by up
to 20 percent.
Sources: UNFCCC: FCCC/CP/1996/12/Add.2; Singer, S., WWF Germany: The
German
report on domestic climate policy - a short review from an NGO perspective,
Frankfurt, 22.11.1995; Singer, S. & Treber, M. on behalf the German NGO
Forum:
Statement to the CSD 1996; Schiffer, H. W.: Deutscher Energiemarkt 1995,
Energiewirtschaftliche Tagesfragen, Vol. 46, Nr. 3/1996, p. 150-163,
Dusseldorf.