Expert panel: Germany risks missing 2030 climate goals

On Thursday, Germany inked a preliminary deal to buy more natural gas from Egypt and to help the North African nation develop production facilities for hydrogen.Germany has also tried to make up for its own high historical emissions by providing help to countries that are now bearing the brunt of global warmings impacts.

Germany risks missing its climate targets for 2030 despite plans to sharply ramp up renewable energy, a government-appointed expert panel warned Friday.

Europe's biggest economy aims to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 65% from 1990 levels by 2030.

The five-member panel said Germany needs to reduce its emissions twice as fast as the yearly average from over the past decade. In some sectors, such as industry and transportation, the cuts would need to be 10 times higher or more, the experts said.

Panel chairman Hans-Martin Henning, director of the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy Systems, said Germany's efforts to improve energy efficiency were undone by higher consumption, such as from larger homes and increased mobility.

The panel's findings are a blow to Germany's green credentials ahead of this year's U.N. climate talks in Egypt, which start next week.

Facing an energy crunch as a result of Russia's war on Ukraine, the German government announced plans to reactivate old oil and coal-fired power stations, import more liquefied natural gas and extract more coal from its own mines, angering climate activists.

The government insists the measures are temporary and the shift to clean energy will be accelerated. On Thursday, Germany inked a preliminary deal to buy more natural gas from Egypt and to help the North African nation develop production facilities for hydrogen.

Germany has also tried to make up for its own high historical emissions by providing help to countries that are now bearing the brunt of global warming's impacts. The government said Friday that it would provide Peru with about 352 million euros ($345 million) to help the Latin American nation improve its public transit system and to combat deforestation in the Amazon.