#Author: Er Abinesh Chettri ,Mechanical Engineering ,NIT Sikkim India, https://nitsikkim.ac.in/
Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions fell 8.7 percent in 2020 compared to the previous year, as the coronavirus pandemic threw Germany’s economy into recession and lockdown measures put a damper on public life and mobility. The pandemic added to the effects of the shift to renewable energy sources, as well as mild weather and rising CO2 prices and caused the biggest emissions drop since 1990. Preliminary data released by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) showed that all economic sectors reduced climate-harmful emissions, with a combined reduction of about 70 million tonnes of CO2 equivalents (CO2-eq), bringing the country’s total emissions to 739 million tonnes. Compared to 1990, German emissions decreased by 40.8 percent, which means the country has overshot its original target of reducing them by 40 percent. All but one sector (buildings) reached their assigned greenhouse gas reduction targets for 2020. However, Germany is set to miss climate targets in some sectors in 2021. AG Energiebilanzen in December calculated that energy-related CO2 emissions – which make up about 85 percent of the country’s total greenhouse gasemissions – increased by 4 percent (25 million tonnes). An early estimate by think tank Agora Energiewende using data from the first half of the year had also warned Germany was heading for a 2021 target miss as the economy rebounded from the effects of the coronavirus pandemic. In 2019, emissions fell slightly less, about 6 percent year on year. It has taken Germany 30 years to cut CO2 equivalents by 510 million tonnes. This leaves 10 years for the task of cutting emissions by a further 301 million tonnes to reach the new 2030 target.
