Germany counts a reduction rate, not a volume

On 23 April 2026 the German Bundestag passed the amendment to the greenhouse gas reduction quota (THG-Quote) as revised by committee.

What kind of scheme it is sits entirely in one sentence of the obligation.

die verpflichtende prozentuale Minderung der Treibhausgasemissionen bei Kraftstoffen

An obligation to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions of fuel by a percentage. Not an obligation to blend a set amount of a set thing.

Why that difference is large

Counting by volume means blending a specified fuel at a specified ratio, and anything that is not that fuel does not enter the calculation.

Counting by reduction rate means any route that cuts emissions enters the calculation. This amendment in fact brought charging electricity derived from biogas into the quota from January 2028. Blending a liquid fuel and charging an electric vehicle meet in the same ledger.

The figures confirmed

From the record of what was passed:

• A 2040 target of 65% (raised by committee from 59% in the original draft)
• A cap on conventional biofuels of 5.8% through 2032 (previously 4.4%)
• An RFNBO sub-quota currently at 1.25%
• The obligated party is the fuel supplier (Kraftstoffanbieter)

The intermediate percentages by year are not in this record and are not reproduced here.

※ This article cites the record of proceedings published by the German Bundestag.

This article expands one section of LCS EAC special report 4, Different Schemes, Different Shares. The full report works from documents published by the UK Department for Transport, the German Bundestag, the Danish Energy Agency and the Korea Energy Agency as primary sources, and does not reproduce figures that were not confirmed in a primary source.