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.