Euronews.green reports that the other, less exciting reason for the sharp drop in emissions was a stagnation of the country's industry, which may lead to some overall economic losses. In 2023, Germany emitted around 675 million tons of CO2e, 74 million tons less than in 2022.

Compared to 1990, this represents a 46% drop, while the total amount makes up less than what was released back in the 50s, as per experts at energy think tank Agora Energiewende. Despite the clear improvement, Germany is said to still be far away from its 2030 climate goals.

The biggest emissions cuts came from the phaseout of coal-fired plants, which on its own saved around 44 million tons of CO2 emissions, thus coal-power generation fell to the lowest level since the 1960s in 2023.

Electricity demand was also 4% lower, which also helped reduce the need for extra output. To ensure it had enough power to make it through last year, Germany resorted to importing clean renewable power from the neighboring countries, instead of generating its own coal-type. Some 50% of the imported power came from renewable sources, such as hydro and wind.

The country also increased its own renewable capacity in 2023 by 5%, meaning that it reached a total green output of over 50% for the first time in its history.

Experts at Agora warned that, though impressive, most of the emission savings were short term and only 15% of them will remain on the long-run.

The building and transport sectors didn't see a decrease in the emissions output, meaning that stronger climate policies and increasing renewable capacity are two of the measures by which Germany can ensure that its climate progress was not short-lived.