Action needed to cut transport sector emissions – environment agency president

Germany must “finally” do something to bring down emissions from its transport sector, Federal Environment Agency (UBA) president Maria Krautzberger said in a press release. While other sectors have seen a fall in emissions over recent decades, transport emissions in 2017 are two percent higher than in 1990. Krautzberger said this was due to “more and more vehicles, more and more goods on the road and ever bigger cars.” The UBA has submitted its final calculations for the country’s 2017 greenhouse gas emissions to the European Commission, confirming preliminary data that overall, Germany’s total greenhouse gas emissions have remained largely unchanged since 2014. Chancellor Angela Merkel has called the transport sector Germany’s “problem child” regarding climate protection and the government has installed a commission to come up with proposals. German carmakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen have only just begun to shift towards lower-emissions vehicles. Germany is also struggling to cut emissions from freight transport by road, rail, water and air, which produce a third of emissions from the sector.