For many years, Germany was considered a pioneer in climate protection. Every German government presented an ambitious agenda to slash CO2 emissions at international climate conferences, and the country succeeded in reducing its greenhouse gas emissions for many years.

However, with the conservative-led government of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, which came to power in May 2025, climate protection seems to have taken a back seat: Economy Minister Katherina Reiche of Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) wants to build new gas-fired power plants. The previous government’s law to promote environmentally friendly home heating systems has been significantly watered down.

A year with little wind and a cold winter

During the presentation of the 2025 climate report, Environment Minister Carsten Schneider from the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), the junior coalition partner of Merz’s conservatives, stated that Germany is still meeting its commitments, but only just.

Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell by 0.1 % last year. To calculate this, experts convert all greenhouse gases into so-called CO2 equivalents. And for 2025, the calculation showed that total emissions stood at 648.9 million tons of equivalents — only about 12.8 million tons below the limit.

Reason enough for the environment minister to emphasize that to achieve the ambitious goals in the future, climate policy must regain its momentum. “Overall, progress has been too slow. There are many reasons for this. 2025 was a relatively windless year, so gas-fired power plants had to step in more often. The winter was also colder, so more heating was needed,” Schneider told journalists on Saturday.

Germany has committed itself to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 65% of 1990 levels by 2030. So far, it is down to 48 %. There are further ambitious commitments for the period after 2030: A reduction of 88 % compared to 1990 levels is required by 2040.

The President of the Federal Environment Agency, Dirk Messner, said that the key focus remains on “…a successful energy transition with continued strong expansion of renewable energies, the necessary storage and grid infrastructure, and the electrification of transportation and buildings, as well as a targeted ramp-up of the hydrogen economy.”

Transportation and building sectors

Transportation and buildings: These two sectors remain the main areas of concern for German climate protection.

Environmentally friendly electric cars accounted for about 19 % of all new registrations in Germany last year, but this also means that the majority of registered cars in Germany are still gasoline- or diesel-powered vehicles. Germany is lagging behind other countries.

The heating sector is the other major problem area. The government has just made a U-turn: After much debate, the previous center-left government had passed legislation according to which 65 % of new heating systems installed must be powered by renewable energy. This would have resulted in the mass installation of heat pumps, which subsequently saw record sales.

The new government has overturned this regulation under pressure from Economy Minister Reiche (CDU), a former manager in the gas industry. In the future, the installation of new gas and oil heating systems will once again be permitted.

Heavy criticism from the opposition

Environment Minister Schneider only agreed to the latest reform grudgingly. Even now, heat pumps remain a “beacon of hope” for the climate, according to the SPD politician. “We must move away from oil and gas,” he added in an interview with the news agency dpa following the presentation of the climate report. “It is harmful to the climate, it is also more expensive in the long run, and that is why the expansion of renewables is central to this government.”

The opposition Green Party, whose former Economy Minister Robert Habeck had been key in drafting the previous heating law, promptly leveled sharp criticism following the release of the climate report. Party leader Felix Banaszak said over the weekend: “Germany is losing momentum on climate protection — and the CDU-SPD coalition government is cheerfully prolonging our dependence on fossil fuels.”

In fact, the 3.8 % drop in industrial emissions last year represents only a limited gain for the climate. The reason for this was the weak economy and the decline in production in energy-intensive sectors such as steel production, which is particularly hard-hit by high energy costs.

Schneider now aims to bundle all necessary measures into a new climate protection law by March 25.

In doing so, he is likely to face a tough battle with his cabinet colleague in the Ministry of Economic Affairs over every step forward in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. This is because Reiche and the chancellor want the European Commission to relax the legislation on phasing out internal combustion engines, and to allow new cars with gasoline or diesel engines to be registered even after 2035. That would make reaching the climate goals even harder to achieve.

This article was originally written in German.

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