Strengthening green growth
Germany has a strong record of investment in energy efficiency, supported by
demanding building standards and extensive government financial support, for example,
through subsidised loans. Germany invests close to 0.7% of GDP in energy efficiency (IEA,
2015).
Investment on this order of magnitude is needed across OECD countries to limit the
increase in global temperatures to 2°C, according to estimates by the International Energy
Agency (IEA, 2015). Germany is committed to the climate change mitigation targets fixed in
the COP21 climate conference.
In residential housing, efficiency is estimated to have
improved by 23% since 2002, although these gains were partly offset by the impact of
higher income and changes in household structure on energy consumption (IEA, 2015). In
industry and services, efficiency gains have been smaller and have been more than offset
by growth in activity, while sectoral change has contributed little to efficiency gains.
To meet its CO2 emission targets and reduce CO2 emissions by 40% below the 1990 level
until 2020, the government has introduced a wide-ranging programme to further
strengthen support for energy-saving investment
EU Forecast
euf:ba18a:76/nws-01