From the World Bank:
Germany’s CO2 output in metric tonnes per capita:
2008: 9.5
2009: 8.815
2010: 9.276
2011: 8.95
2012: 9.192
2013: 9.221
One of the reasons CO2 emissions are increasing is because Germany foolishly decided that all nuclear plants must close by 2021. In 2010 Germany got over 20% of its electricity from nuclear. At current rates of adoption, renewables cannot hope to replace the nuclear power shortfall in 5 years, meaning the Germans will have to rely on fossil fuels.
So after all this time and money, Germany now gets about 10% of its power from renewables. The cost? Billions upon billions of dollars, and the highest energy costs in Europe by a wide margin (other than Denmark). And that gargantuan effort is about to be completely undone by their decision to phase out nuclear. Replacing 20% of your zero-GHG power with 10% zero-GHG power and 10% coal and gas does not help global warming in any way.
In 2014, Germans paid 29.81 cents per kwh for electricity. The French, powered mostly by nuclear, paid 15.85 cents. This gap is going to get worse as Germany decommissions its own nuclear plants and replaces them with either expensive solar or power purchased from the grid.
And Germany is currently the ‘gold standard’ for government efforts to switch to renewables. Other countries that have been trying it have had even poorer results.
Oh, I forgot to compare the table above to the U.S.:
2008: 18.489
2009: 17.192
2010: 17.485
2011: 17.019
2012: 16.287
2013: 16.39
On a per-capita basis, Germany decreased its CO2 output by about .3 metric tonnes, while the U.S. decreased by more than 2 metric tonnes. As a percentage of per capita CO2 emissions, the U.S. still beats Germany.
If you think I’m cherry-picking the start dates, let’s go back to 2000, when Germany started its big green shift. Then, U.S. CO2 emissions per capita were 20.218, while Germany’s were 10.096. So, since the start of Germany’s shift to a ‘green economy’, Germany has managed to reduce per-capita CO2 emissions by .875 metric tonnes. During the same period, the U.S. lowered its per-capita CO2 emissions by 3.828 metric tonnes - a decline 4.37 times as much as Germany’s.
Here’s an excellent chart that shows the absolute CO2 per capita between the U.S. and Germany from 2000 to 2013 (latest data available). That covers the entire ‘green shift’ movement in Germany. Notice that the U.S. decline is much steeper than Germany’s. It’s almost like all that renewable power just doesn’t translate very well into actual CO2 reductions by the time it all comes out in the wash.