Germany’s Green Energy Policy

     In the early 2000’s Germany decided to make the switch from using fossil fuels for energy to using renewable energy sources such as solar, wind and water powers. Since 2002 Germany has increased its renewable energy sources from about 6% to about 25%. Many of Germany’s renewable energy comes from the consumers themselves, with over 300,000 citizens contributing to the renewable energy sector.  Germany’s goal was to have 35% of its energy to be from renewable sources by 2022 but as the numbers continue to rise it is estimated that nearly 48% of Germany’s energy will be renewable by then.  Germany’s goal is to decrease the amount of carbon emissions let out into the atmosphere by 40% by 2020. Currently the rate of CO2 emissions are dropping steadily by around 2% each year. After the Nuclear crisis in Japan Germany even decided to drop almost all of its nuclear powers ahead of schedule. As it stands today Germany is one of the leaders in producing Green Energy throughout the world, it’s policy has kickstarted Green Energy policies in other countries as well.

Resources:

Businessweek

Guardian

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