The GreenTech sector has developed into a mainstay of the German economy, according to the new report “GreenTech made in Germany” by the Federal Environment Agency in collaboration with Prognos. With an annual turnover of €314 billion and around 3.4 million employees, the sector ranks right at the top. The most important areas are green mobility, energy efficiency and sustainable water management.
Despite global crises, the industry has shown strong resilience and continuous growth, even during the years of the coronavirus pandemic and the war in Ukraine. While many branches of industry collapsed, GreenTech remained a stable growth driver.
Germany is an international innovation leader in the field of environmental technologies, with a high number of patent applications and an export share of over 8% of total foreign trade. The main markets are the EU, USA and China, but increasingly also new markets in Asia and Africa.
The report outlines three future scenarios up to 2045 – each for Germany and the global market: a stagnation scenario with sluggish transformation, a “business-as-usual” scenario with moderate growth and an ambitious scenario in which the gross value added of the German GreenTech sector increases from € 314 billion today to around € 620 billion and the global market grows from € 1.02 trillion to over € 4 trillion. This scenario shows how GreenTech can become the central solution for climate targets and competitiveness.
For entrepreneurs and managers, the atlas offers a valuable basis for decision-making, as it specifically identifies growth potential, fields of innovation, export opportunities and political levers – and shows that GreenTech is not only ecologically necessary, but also highly attractive economically.
