Germany profile

Overview

Germany's total final energy consumption of 2022 (195 Mtoe) was slightly below its 2000 level (207 Mtoe, -12 Mtoe, i.e. -6%). In 2022, the largest consuming sector is residential, representing 30.8% of total final energy consumption. The share of residential has slightly decreased from 32.5% in 2000 to 30.8% in 2022, while industry increased its share from 23.9% to 26.5%. The share of transport in total consumption decreased slightly from 28.8% to 27.5% (see Figure 1).

Energy efficiency for final consumers, as measured by the so-called technical ODEX, has improved (in average) by around 1.3% per year since 2000. Larger gains have been registered for households (1.9%/year), against 1%/year for transport and 1.8%/year for the services sector. A lower annual rate of improvements has been achieved in the industry sector (0.6%/year).

With the "Federal Climate Change Act" from 2019, Germany introduced legally binding sectoral GHG emission reduction targets for 2030, which were tightened in the first revision in 2021. Since the last revision in July 2024, target compliance is no longer linked to ex-post sectoral statistical emission data, but to overall projected data. In order to achieve the tightened reduction targets, a new Climate Action Programme was adopted by the Federal Government on October 4, 2023. It includes further energy efficiency and climate policy measures. Among those are a new Energy Efficiency Act, which entered into force in November 2023 and serves to implement the 2023 recast of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive. The programme also includes some revisions of legislation on the energy supply side (for coal and wind energy), new regulations for heating of buildings, as well as several new or enhanced funding programs supporting energy efficiency and decarbonization in buildings, industry and transport. 

Buildings

As shown in Figure 3 the household energy consumption per m² for space heating has decreased by 32% since 2000, from 16.5 koe/m² to 11.2 koe/m² in 2022. The consumption per dwelling for water heating, for appliances and for cooking stayed relatively constant during the last years and decreased only slightly compared to 2000 (see Figure 4).

Figure 5 shows a decomposition of the change in energy consumption. It shows that the total final energy consumption of households decreased by around 7.5 Mtoe between 2000 and 2022. Two main factors contributed to an increase in energy consumption – more dwellings (7.5 Mtoe) and lifestyle/comfort (9.7 Mtoe, due to larger homes and more appliances per dwelling). On the opposite, energy savings decreased the consumption by around 26.4 Mtoe, while other effects had only a small decreasing impact of 2.4 Mtoe. Climate effects also had a small decreasing impact of 0.7 Mtoe.

Figure 6 shows the development of the specific energy consumption in households for both electricity and total final consumption. Both the electricity consumption per square meter and the total consumption have been steadily increasing until 2006 but dropped significantly since then (-45 % for the total final consumption, -34 % for electricity).

To achieve the target of a virtually climate-neutral building stock in Germany by 2050, a set of measures was either newly established or comprehensively revised in the last years. The main building regulation in Germany is the “Building Energy Act (GEG)”, which came into force in November 2020. The GEG regulates the energy requirements for new and existing buildings and for the use of renewable energies in buildings. The GEG has been amended twice since then. From 1 January 2023, especially the standards for new buildings were tightened. From 1 January 2024, the switch to at least 65% renewable energies has been mandatory when installing new heating systems. The requirement to use at least 65% renewable energies is also linked to the existence of municipal heat planning in accordance with the new Heat Planning Act. In parallel, the funding conditions for energy efficiency and renewable energies in buildings were improved and combined in a "Federal funding program for efficient buildings (BEG)" since 2020. From 2024, the revised BEG supports the replacement of old, fossil-fuel heating systems with heating systems based on renewable energies with an investment cost subsidy of up to 70 percent and also includes specific conditions for low-income households. 

Transport

Final energy consumption in transport is dominated by cars covering 65% of total consumption in 2022. Compared to 2000, the share of road freight increased from 25.5% to 28.8%, while rail transport dropped from 3.6% to 2.4% and domestic air from 1.7% to 0.7%. In the same period the share of busses and water stayed almost constant.

Cars represented 84% of passenger traffic measured in passenger kilometers in 2022, followed by rail with 11.4% and only 4.7% for bus. The share of cars slightly increased in comparison to 2000 (+0.1% points), while the share of rail increased by 2.3 % points and bus traffic dropped by 2.3% points.

Road freight transport represents 73.3% of total freight traffic in 2022, 5.2% points more than in 2000. The share of rail transport in freight increased by 2.2% points, while the share of water traffic decreased by 7.4% points to 6.8% of total freight transport activity (see Figure 9).

Figure 10 shows the different factors influencing the change in final energy consumption of transport. Germany's total final energy consumption for transport decreased by about 5.8 Mtoe in the period from 2000 to 2022. The increasing traffic of passengers and freight contributed to increase the consumption by 4.5 Mtoe (activity). This trend was counterbalanced by energy savings (11.2 Mtoe). Modal shift had a slightly increasing effect of 0.6 Mtoe, while other effects resulted in an increase of about 0.2 Mtoe.

The  Climate Action Programme 2023 includes a couple of measures addressing different fields of action in the transport sector: (1) improvement of the rail network and strengthening of urban and regional transport (among those a flat price ticket valid all over Germany, the so-called "Deutschlandticket") (2) further improvements in public transport (3) Increased use of the potential of synthetic fuels (4) Drive change for trucks and heavy commercial vehicles (5) Acceleration of climate neutrality for passenger cars (6) Increased digitalisation of local traffic systems. From 2016 to 2023, a subsidy programme for the promotion of electric mobility was in place, the so-called "Umweltbonus".

Industry

The total consumption of the industry sector increased from 49.5 Mtoe in 2000 to 51.8 Mtoe in 2022 (+4.7%). Consumption of chemical industry increased by 20 % in this time period, while the energy consumption of the steel producing sector decreased by 17%. Non-ferrous metals' energy consumption decreased by 19%.

While the specific consumption of steel is higher in 2022 compared to 2000, the specific consumption for paper and cement production are lower. In the meantime, some (strong) fluctuations e.g. due to capacity effects during low utilization of production capacities (especially in an economic crisis such for cement in 2006) can be observed.

Figure 13 shows the factors influencing the changes in final energy consumption of the industrial sector. The increase of its energy consumption by about 2.4 Mtoe between 2000 and 2022 was mainly driven by change in industrial activity (7.2 Mtoe) and other effects (6.7 Mtoe). This effect was counterbalanced by energy savings (-7.1 Mtoe) and structural changes towards less intensive branches, which increased their contribution in industrial value added (-4.5 Mtoe). 

The main funding program for energy efficiency in industry is the "Federal Funding for Energy and Resource Efficiency in Companies", starting in 2019. In 2020, the continuation of the Energy Efficiency Networks Initiative and its further development to Efficiency and Climate Networks was agreed between the Federal Government and Industry Associations. The decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries is funded by a subsidy programme, which was re-structured in 2024 and complemented by the introduction of Carbon Contracts for Difference.