CO2 neutrality: Allianz: Germany and the world are missing climate goals

Abandoning oil, gas and coal was never a political priority in many countries; the USA has moved away from it. According to Allianz, the world is still making progress in climate protection - but too slowly.

A coal-fired power plant in western China's Gansu province. With a share of around 30 percent, the People's Republic is the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases. (Symbolic image) Photo: Johannes Neudecker/dpa

Munich. According to Allianz calculations, both the world as a whole and Germany and Europe will miss the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. At the current rate, the planet could be climate neutral in 2064, the EU as a whole in 2057 and Germany in 2051, according to the study. The goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees is therefore practically unattainable. Among the German-speaking countries, Switzerland is the most advanced, followed by Germany and Austria.

China generates the greatest burden on the global climate

The economists of the Munich DAX group published their “Green Transition Tracker” for the second time. The basis is data on energy production from the 64 countries that cause the majority of global greenhouse gas emissions. According to Allianz, the world's largest emitter of greenhouse gases remains China by a wide margin: the People's Republic alone releases 30 percent of global emissions into the atmosphere, followed by the USA with eleven percent.

EU leads, but momentum is slowing

Small Luxembourg takes first place, Switzerland is in eighth place, Germany is in twelfth place and Austria is in 19th place. According to the Transition Tracker, the EU remains the leader in reducing CO2 emissions with a share of six percent, but the pace has slowed. According to the study, Germany is also not progressing fast enough to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The government target date of 2045 is not mentioned in the study.

Despite political headwinds, progress is being made

Although climate protection has never been a political priority in many countries and the USA has moved away from climate targets under President Donald Trump, the study shows that the phase-out of oil, gas and coal is making progress: 56 of the 64 countries have further reduced their emissions.

Green electricity is overtaking coal

2025 marked an important turning point: in global electricity generation, the share of renewable energies at 33.5 percent was for the first time higher than that of coal (33.2 percent). A driver of the change this year is therefore less climate policy than a simple economic incentive: The increase in oil and gas prices caused by the Iran war leads, on the one hand, to savings in fossil energy consumption and, on the other hand, to increased sales of electric cars and solar systems. This year, CO2 emissions could even fall slightly by 0.5 percent. At the bottom of the table are Azerbaijan and Iran. According to the study, nothing measurable has happened in terms of climate protection in either country.

Insurers do not doubt the reality of climate change

Like other large insurance groups, Allianz conducts its own economic studies. Regardless of political beliefs, the industry has a vested interest in climate protection: companies' loss reports show that rising average temperatures are accompanied by increasing natural catastrophe losses from storms and floods - not linearly from year to year, but in a long-term trend.

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