Climate | Energy

In 2018, the European Commission published its communication “A clean planet for all”, which calls for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A thorough study commissioned by UBA assessing the underlying scenarios for policy making shows, that central aspects for building an adequate ambitious long-term climate strategy, such as socio-economic, fiscal and technological, had been considered.

With the Paris Agreement the EU urgently needs to re-assess its long-term target. A new scenario, commissioned by UBA, shows that a GHG-neutral EU is feasible, based on a fully decarbonized energy supply, without carbon capture and storage. Key components of the scenario are a strong increase in energy efficiency as well as far-reaching electrification. The use of bioenergy is strongly limited.

Greening the office roof, unsealing the schoolyard, farming crops which are adapted to climate change, flood management measures, etc. This is the fourth time the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is acknowledging local and regional projects which make a real contribution to coping with the effects of climate change in Germany.

More and more proof of global warming is becoming evident.

In its new RESCUE study, the German Environment Agency (UBA) analyzes how to achieve greenhouse gas neutrality and reduce raw material consumption by 70 percent by the year 2050. The RESCUE study describes six scenarios of possible transformation pathways for which details must be fleshed out. The scenarios are meant to help the federal government achieve the agreed goal of greenhouse gas neutrali

200 international experts meeting in Berlin.

UBA and AWI demand more climate action and protection of the oceans and the mitigation of risks for coastal regions.

In the first half of 2019 electricity produced from renewable energies made notable gains over the same period in the previous year. During the first six months of the year production was around 129 billion kilowatt hours, about 10 percent more than the same period in 2018 (+ 12 billion kWh). But the rate of new build of wind energy turbines has slowed in 2019.

Climate projections provide information about possible future climate developments. They constitute an important basis to gain information about climate impacts and possible adaptation options. Climate projections are the result of the application of climate models that are based on emission and concentration scenarios.

The 2018 emissions of the roughly 1,870 stationary installations in Germany recorded in the European Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) amounted to around 422 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2eq). This is a 3.5-percent decrease compared to the previous year. The decline in emissions is chiefly due to lower emissions in the energy industry.

Lesser use of fossile energy and favourable weather conditions helped with the decline.