Dax companies are emitting more CO2 again

Dusseldorf The carbon footprint of the German economy has deteriorated over the past year. Overall, the 40 Dax companies increased their CO2 emissions by six percent in 2021 compared to the previous year. This was the result of a Handelsblatt analysis of the sustainability reports of the largest German corporations. In absolute terms, emissions of the greenhouse gas rose by almost 16.5 million tons – that corresponds roughly to the CO2 balance of the city of Berlin.

“With the emissions in Germany in 2021, we are roughly back to the level of 2019,” says climate researcher Manfred Fischedick from the Wuppertal Institute for Climate, Environment and Energy.

In 2020, global emissions fell for the first time since 1960 due to the corona crisis. According to Fischedick, increasing CO2 emissions are to be expected over the next few years because the economy will have to replace the gas that is becoming scarce due to the Ukraine war with more climate-damaging energy sources in the short term.