Germany's greenhouse gas emissions again missed the targets set under the Climate Protection Act and fell only slightly in 2025, with Environment Minister Carsten Schneider criticizing the lack of progress at a conference in Berlin on Saturday.

According to data from the German Environment Agency, emissions fell by just 0.1% in 2025 to 649 million tons of CO2, below the 1.5% decline forecast. Additionally, in 2024, emissions recorded a sharper decline of 3.4%.

Schneider said that, despite rising adoption of electric vehicles and heat pumps, progress remained “too slow,” urging citizens to accelerate the transition to renewable energy for environmental and security reasons.

“What benefits the climate also increases our security and economic strength,” Schneider said. “Every additional kilowatt-hour of renewable energy makes our country less dependent on oil and gas and our energy supply more secure,” he added.

Despite the slow progress, Schneider and the German Environment Agency expressed confidence that Germany can still meet its 2030 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 65% from 1990 levels.

Schneider also welcomed the “growing enthusiasm” for “climate protection technologies” such as electric cars and heat pumps.

“And there are more newly approved wind power projects than ever before. This gives hope that progress will once again pick up speed in the years to come,” he said.

To meet the 2030 reduction target, emissions will need to fall by an average of 42 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually from 2026 onward, more than 40 times the reduction recorded last year.