Over the last decade, Germany saw the largest increase (together with Italy) in share terms of low-carbon generation, increasing from less than 40% to 56% of the mix in 2020. This increase was entirely due to the strong deployment of renewable technologies, which also compensated for a 10‑percentage-point drop from nuclear power. This increase largely resulted in lower coal-fired generation, with a further small contribution by coal-to-gas substitution. The CO2 intensity per unit of electricity generated saw one of the strongest decreases among the 15 countries and declined to around 310 g CO2/kWh in 2020. A coal phase-out plan has been put in place which should see this intensity continue to decline going forwards. A rebound of the CO2 intensity in 2021 and 2022 can nonetheless be expected, due to a combination of effects: increased electricity demand with a consequent higher call on fossil-fuelled plants, a coal-to-gas substitution, and the decrease and ultimate phase-out of nuclear power in April 2023.
Several policies and targets at European and national level underpin the goal to achieve the European Union’s net zero ambition by 2050 (EC, 2019) – the main overarching ones include: targets for 2030 (EC, 2020), the REPowerEU (EC, 2022) measures, the provisions of the national recovery and resilience plan (BMF, 2020), and the national energy plan (BMWi, 2020b). To further accelerate the decarbonisation of the energy sector, the Federal Government has put in place a set of measures included in the Easter Package (BMWK, 2022) and has been working on a New Building Energy Act (Bundesregierung, 2023). Achieving greater electrification in Germany will require additional efforts given the current lower level, changing trend direction in transport and strongly increasing electrification in industry, and exploiting the