Halle (dpa/sa) - According to an estimate by the State Office for Environmental Protection, more greenhouse gases will be emitted again in Saxony-Anhalt in 2021. The emissions increased by 3.7 percent compared to 2020 to around 30.8 million tons of CO2 equivalents, as the authority announced on Friday in Halle. Increasing lignite power generation and less wind energy are the causes. In previous years, the trend in CO2 emissions had been declining. From 2018 to 2019 there was a minus of nine percent, within the following year it was six percent less.
Energy Minister Armin Willingmann (SPD) explained the trend for 2021 with the economic recovery after the corona pandemic and with the reactions to the gas prices that have already risen in the second half of 2021. “High prices for gas and comparatively low yields in the wind energy sector led to an increased use of climate-damaging coal to generate electricity."
Willingmann expects opposite developments for 2022. "On the one hand, the energy crisis resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine will force us to temporarily generate more climate-damaging coal in order to ensure the indispensable security of supply in Germany. On the other hand, private households and companies will in all probability consume less natural gas due to the extremely high prices and thereby likely reducing greenhouse gas emissions."
From the minister's point of view, it is important to push ahead with the expansion of renewable energies even more intensively, also in view of the ongoing climate change. Greenhouse gas emissions must be reduced more consistently as soon as the acute energy crisis has been overcome, it said.
