Air pollution in Germany

Air pollution may cause diseases, allergies, or death in humans. It may also cause harm to other living organisms, such as animals and crops, and may cause damage to the environment. Air pollution can be generated by both human activity and natural processes.

An air pollutant is a substance in the air that can have adverse effects on humans and the ecosystem.

The major primary pollutants produced by human activity include:

• Carbon dioxide (CO₂) - The most emitted form of human caused air pollution. Emitted by the burning of fossil fuels.
• Sulfur oxides (SO_x) - Particularly sulfur dioxide. Produced by the combustion of coal and petroleum.
• NO_x (nitrogen oxides, particularly nitrogen dioxide). Produced by from high-temperature combustion.
• Carbon monoxide (CO) - Product of incomplete combustion of fuel such as natural gas, coal or wood. Vehicle exhaust is a major source of carbon monoxide.
• Volatile organic compounds (VOC) - Categorized as either methane or non-methane. Methane is an extremely efficient greenhouse gas which contributes to enhanced global warming.
• Ammonia (NH₃) - Emitted from agricultural processes.

Secondary pollutants include:

• Particulates created from gaseous primary pollutant and compounds in photochemical smog. Smog is a kind of air pollution and results from large amounts of coal burning in an area caused by a mixture of smoke and sulfur dioxide. Modern smog does not usually come from coal but from vehicular and industrial emissions that are acted on in the atmosphere by ultraviolet light from the sun to form secondary pollutants that also combine with the primary emissions to form photochemical smog.[9]
• Ground-level ozone (O₃) formed from NO_x and VOCs. Abnormally high concentrations are brought about by human activities (mostly the combustion of fossil fuel), it is a pollutant, and a constituent of smog.[10]

"Modern" environmental policies first began to be developed in the 1960s, with the United States, Japan, Sweden, and to some extent Great Britain at the forefront in establishing new environmental institutions, procedures, instruments, standards, and technologies.[7] Learning from these countries, Germany quickly caught up, especially in the area of air pollution control policy.[11] The largest triggers for change were:

1. The widespread damages to health (smog) and nature (acid rain) caused by air pollution.
2. The shock of the two oil price crises (1973 and 1979) that highlighted the problem of the German economy's strong dependence on unsure foreign sources.
3. The growing opposition to the country's growing reliance on nuclear energy.[7]

As early as 1977, green groups participated in elections to district parliaments.[7] In the European elections of 1979, several such groups put up candidates with a "green label", attracting almost one million votes.[7] During the rise of the green party, environmental issues triggered major and partly violent conflicts.[7] Since the late 1980s, a more cooperative policy style developed between the various actor groups and institutions.[7] The high integrative capacity of the German political system and the willingness of the "organized" green movement to become more cooperative are important features explaining the mostly cooperative climate policy that followed in the 1980s.[7]

The integration of a green political party in the political-administrative system distinguishes Germany from the United States and Japan. The German election system is one of proportional representation. Once the 5% hurdle is overcome, a party achieves representation in parliament.[7] The German federal government and the electoral system tend to promote cooperation. The system of proportional representation makes it difficult for any single party to gain enough seats in the parliament to form a government by itself.[7] Therefore, coalition governments are a basic German feature. The system encourages negotiation and consensus politics on and between all levels of government because it applies to all federal, state, and local bodies.[7] These very specific political-cultural preconditions have influenced Germany's policy style in the area of climate change.

The German public has been largely supportive of the German government's initiatives. An increased perception of vulnerability to climate change appears to motivate German citizens to be willing to change in the hopes of spurring necessary global efforts. Germany's vulnerability to the physical effects of climate change is much lower than the risk to the United States, Japan, Australia and Spain. However, risk perceptions among the population are high.[7]

There is also the issue of the perceived economic costs of action. In Germany, in contrast with many other countries, climate action is not considered to be an economic burden. The additional financial burden on the average household has been rather small, although it has increased in the form of a growing tax burden.[12] Although certain measures have clear and distinct costs, there is a growing belief that the broader efforts to move to cleaner technologies have created economic "winners" as well.[7] Green technology and renewable energy sectors have created many new jobs. In addition, the dependency on the world energy market for fossil resources is decreasing, reducing Germany's economic-political vulnerability.[7] Thus, a structural change toward a climate-sensitive energy policy has been adopted with almost no social conflicts.[7] These positive employment and foreign energy policy effects of climate-related policies have played an imported role in the public's climate change discourse.

Germany is well on the way to meeting the standards of air pollution control set by the EU. For sulfur dioxide and volatile organic compounds it is sufficient to apply the measures already adopted and implemented in the past.[5] However, additional reductions are needed for nitrogen oxides and ammonia.[5] The necessary reductions in nitrogen oxide emissions will be achieved in the transport sector and in stationary installations.[5] The necessary reductions for ammonia emissions will be achieved in the agriculture sector.[5]

Feed-in tariffs (FiT) for electricity have been introduced in Germany to encourage the use of new energy technologies such as wind power, biomass, hydropower, geothermal power, and solar photovoltaics.[6] Feed-in tariffs are policy mechanisms designed to accelerate investment in renewable energy technologies by providing them with remuneration (a "tariff") above the retail or wholesale rates of electricity.[13] Germany was the first country to implement feed-in tariffs by passing its Energy Feed-in Law in 1990.[13] Many early FiT policies set one rate for all renewable energy technologies, more recently FiT programs are using various rates depending on the type of technology, location, size of the project, and the quality of resources, allowing FiTs to promote multiple renewable energy technologies.[14] Although Germany's FiT program began in 1990, it has been amended and revised in 2000, 2004, 2006, 2008 and 2011.[14] This allows Germany to alter the policies, as the economy and technologies for renewable energy changes. The mechanism provides long-term security to renewable energy producers, typically based on the cost of generation of each technology.[15] For instance, technologies such as wind power, are given a lower per-kWh price, while technologies such as solar PV and tidal power are given a higher price, reflecting its higher costs.[15]

As of July 2014, the feed-in tariffs range from 3.33 ¢/kWh for hydropower facilities over 50 MW to 12.88 ¢/kWh for solar installations on buildings up to 30 kW_p and 19 ¢/kWh for offshore wind.[16]

In August 2014, a revised German Renewable Energy Sources Act (EEG) entered into force. From this revised act, specific deployment corridors now stipulate the extent to which renewable energy is to be expanded in the future and the feed-in tariffs gradually will no longer be fixed by the government, rather they will be determined by auction.[17] Wind and solar power will be targeted over hydro, gas, geothermal and biomass.[17]

The goal of the feed-in tariffs is to meet Germany's renewable energy goals of 40 to 45% of electricity consumption by 2025 and 55 to 60% by 2035.[18] The policy also aims to encourage the development of renewable energy technologies, reduce external costs, and increase security of energy supply.[19]