Overview

• Germany's Earth Overshoot Day for 2025 falls on May 3, a one-day improvement from May 2 in 2024, but the country remains among the earliest to exceed its biocapacity annually.
• If global consumption matched Germany’s rate, humanity would require nearly three Earths to sustain itself, according to the Global Footprint Network.
• Severe water stress, exacerbated by industries like coal mining, chemicals, and food production, has worsened, with these sectors consuming more water than the entire population combined.
• Environmental groups, including BUND, Oxfam, and WWF, are urging Germany to adopt binding resource protection laws, achieve climate neutrality by 2040, and phase out harmful subsidies.
• High resource consumption is driven by energy-intensive industries, individual car traffic, industrial livestock farming, and wealth inequality, with the richest 10% of Germans producing emissions equal to the entire poorer half.