Germany faces a gigantic task to achieve the climate protection goals it has set itself, Climate Minister Robert Habeck said on Tuesday, unveiling a report that showed it would have to cut its energy use by up to a quarter in the next eight years.

 

The new coalition government, which includes Habeck's Green party, is trying to reduce fossil fuel use in Europe's biggest economy without overburdening consumers, not least the households whose energy costs have been rising for months owing to record gas prices.

 

In order to hit its target of cutting carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 65% of 1990 levels by the start of the next decade, Germany will have to reduce energy consumption by 20-25%, a report from Habeck's ministry said.

 

"The task is big. It's gigantic," he told a news conference. "We managed to cut emissions by an average of 15 million tonnes each year from 2010 to 2020, and from 2022 to 2030 we have to cut them by 40 million tonnes a year, on average."

 

The European Union, of which Germany is the largest member, has set itself a target of cutting net emissions 55% from 1990 levels by 2030. This is meant as a step towards the United Nations goal of "net zero" by 2050, set in a bid to avert the worst excesses of climate change.

 

But Germany was forced to set itself a much tougher goal by a Constitutional Court ruling last year on a case brought by a young woman who said the rise sea levels caused by global warming would engulf her family farm.

 

Habeck said the government was aiming to increase Germany's current two gigawatts of onshore wind power capacity to 5GW by next year and 10GW by 2027, adding that state support for wind and solar farms was likely to remain for another 20 years.

 

Each gigawatt of wind power capacity saves around 1.3 million tonnes of CO2 per year, according to data from the Global Wind Energy Council.

 

Germany will still need gas as a back-up on days with little wind and sun while it builds up its hydrogen infrastructure but Habeck said it should not be seen as a long-term replacement for other fossil fuels: "Coal should not be simply replaced by gas - then we'd be back to square one."

 

German households with a monthly net income below 1,300 euros ($1,475) put almost 10% of total spending into energy in 2020, the most recent annual data available, the Federal Statistics Office said on Tuesday.

 

Across all income classes, energy costs made up 6.1% of consumer spending, it said, up from 5.8% in 2019. (Reuters)