BERLIN (dpa-AFX) - Germany once again missed its climate target last year, according to calculations by the think tank Agora Energiewende. According to preliminary figures, greenhouse gas emissions stagnated at 761 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) in 2021. This would mean that Germany would have saved 39 percent of emissions compared to 1990 - a savings target of 40 percent was actually already in place for 2020. This would be the second consecutive failure to meet the target. The Federal Environment Agency will present final figures in March.

Agora's Germany director, Simon Müller, criticized, "2022 climate targets have fallen behind due to short-term energy security measures." He called it an alarm signal. By 2030, greenhouse gas emissions are to fall by 65 percent compared to 1990 levels. Although energy consumption fell 4.7 percent last year compared with the previous year, in part because of massive price increases for natural gas and electricity and mild weather, the think tank said. But greater use of coal and oil has offset emissions reductions from energy savings, it said. In the current year, the government must reverse the trend, it said.

In particular, there is a gap in the areas of transport and buildings, which the German government's expert council had already pointed out. The German government's climate protection program to address this is still pending.

Federal Climate Protection Minister Robert Habeck urged progress. "Our problem child is the transport sector, where CO2 emissions have risen again," the Green politician said, according to the statement. "All the measures envisaged so far are not enough to close the large CO2 gap here. And unlike the building sector, it has not yet been possible to develop a perspective that will change that. There is an urgent need for action here."

Environmental protection organizations reacted with concern to outrage and called on Federal Transport Minister Volker Wissing (FDP) in particular to take action.

To achieve its self-imposed goals in the field of renewable energies, Germany must significantly accelerate the expansion. By 2030, 80 percent of gross electricity consumption is to be covered by renewable sources such as wind and solar.

In the case of solar plants, the rate of expansion would have to more than double, according to Agora, whose former head Patrick Graichen is now State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and Climate Protection. For onshore wind turbines, it would have to more than triple, and for offshore wind farms, it would even have to increase more than eightfold.

"Renewable energy expansion is the foundation for everything else," Müller said. The pace must increase, he said, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions there, but also to meet the growing demand for electricity for industrial processes, for example. Greater use of electricity is intended to push back climate-damaging energy sources - whether for electric cars, heat pumps for heating or in industry.

Habeck emphasized: "The expansion of renewable energies is finally picking up again after years of stagnation: very clearly in solar power, and step by step also in wind power. The measures to accelerate this will take effect in 2023."/hrz/DP/ngu