Digital decarbonisation Germany

Digital technologies are a key enabler of the green and digital transition – and the digital sector is supporting all major sectors of the economy to decarbonise.

The report looks closer at the German situation and highlights German digital business solutions that enable and accelerate decarbonisation of the wider economy and society.

Key findings of the study

The report reviews the German climate policies and digital transformation efforts and highlights the importance of a close partnership between the tech sector and policy-makers to solve key environmental challenges while strengthening German competitiveness. The report finds that existing digital solutions can help enable important parts of the journey towards Germany’s net-zero goal in 2045:

Digital decarbonisation

• Four main sectors, which account for two thirds of Germany’s total GHG emissions, hold significant potential for digitally enabled climate mitigation and energy savings. These are domestic transportation, buildings, manufacturing and agriculture.
• In total, 20-25% of the GHG reductions needed for a net-zero German economy will require utilising digital solutions.
  

Decarbonising digital

• An essential part of the journey towards net zero is minimising the carbon emissions across the digital value chain by decarbonising operational electricity emissions and addressing emissions related to devices as well as servers and buildings etc. Data centres in Germany are estimated to account for 0.9% of Germany’s total GHG emissions.