Germany saw its carbon dioxide emissions drop by just 1.5% in 2025 from the previous year, amid slow uptake of climate-friendly technologies in buildings and transport, German energy think tank Agora Energiewende said in its annual report on Wednesday.
The pace of emissions reductions slowed down last year from 2024, and the cuts were less than half of those achieved in 2024, according to Agora Energiewende.
Germany still met its national annual emissions target last year, but Europe’s biggest economy is losing momentum in climate protection, the think tank noted.
The main driver of emissions reductions in 2025 was lower output by energy-intensive industries, amid persistent weak demand—which signals continued weakness in the German industry. Record solar power generation also helped cut CO2 emissions, but the energy sector overall saw a slower pace of emissions reductions, mostly due to colder winter weather than in previous years.
Wind and solar power generation were key in Germany’s emissions reductions last year, said Julia Bläsius, director of Agora Energiewende Deutschland.
“However, the electricity sector – so far the driving force behind emissions reduction – cannot offset forever the shortcomings in the transition to climate-friendly technologies in transport and buildings,” Bläsius added.
The number of heat pumps and electric vehicles sales rose in 2025, but high investment costs continue to hamper faster adoption of electricity-powered technologies in industry, buildings, and transport, Agora Energiewende said.
Despite soaring wind and solar installations, Germany needs to accelerate capacity additions to meet its own renewable energy targets.
Germany saw the highest number of onshore wind turbines commissioned in the first half of 2025 for eight years, but the rebound in installations is still off track to reach the official targets, the German wind energy association, Bundesverband WindEnergie (BWE), said in the middle of 2025.
Despite the jump in wind power installations, Germany still has a gap between the rate of capacity expansion and the legally mandated goals in the Renewable Energy Sources Act, the so-called EEG, BWE president Bärbel Heidebroek said in July.
Germany has a target to install 10 GW of wind power capacity every year to have renewables account for 80% of its electricity generation in 2030.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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