More rail transport, fossil heating restriction might put Germany on track towards 2030 climate target – report

Germany can still achieve its 2030 climate targets as long as a number of requirements are met, the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) concluded in a new report. These include the expansion of rail transport, a reform of the vehicle tax, and a restriction of fossil-fuel heating. In addition, all emissions would have to be priced and paid for by polluters. The UBA also examined how additional emissions can be saved in the building, mobility, energy and industry sectors.""In the case of transport and buildings, the prescribed targets will probably be missed even with a mix of very ambitious instruments and measures," UBA wrote. Additional instruments effective in the short term such as a comprehensive expansion of rail transport, mandatory municipal heating planning, minimum efficiency standards, and a restriction of fossil-fuel heating are needed to achieve sectoral climate targets. 

“The model calculation clearly shows that we have a lot of catching up to do in some sectors,” UBA head Dirk Messner said. “We urgently need a constructive dialogue about where emissions can be reduced, otherwise we will miss the statutory savings targets.” The agency also called on the industrial sector to increase funding for low- and zero-carbon technologies and for a ‘honest talk’ about how financial burdens can be absorbed an distributed more fairly on lower-income groups. “Low-income households are currently being asked to pay disproportionately,” Messner said, “Understandably, that doesn’t exactly increase acceptance for more climate protection.”

Germany’s Climate Protection Act provides for a 65 percent reduction in climate-damaging emissions by 2030 compared to 1990. It also aims to reduce emissions by 88 percent by 2040 and achieve net greenhouse gas neutrality in 2045. To this end, the law sets annual reduction targets by 2030 for the individual sectors. The last UBA projection report from 2021 indicated that current climate protection instruments would not meet the 2030 targets or the annual savings goals. The UBA report follows the recent approval by the German government of a controversial reform of the climate action law.