In 2025, German companies purchased a total of 658.7 tonnes of the greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). According to data released by the Federal Statistical Office (Destatis) on Friday, this represented a reduction of 19 percent, totaling 154.6 tonnes less than in 2024. The amount of SF6 consumed in 2025 is equivalent to 15.5 million tonnes of CO2, although the vast majority of this gas is used in closed systems and is only little released into the atmosphere.
Regarding emissions, approximately 470 tonnes (71.3 percent) of SF6 were actively released in 2025, primarily within the sectors of electric power generation, transmission, and distribution. Compared to the previous year, the amount of the substance released in this sector decreased substantially by 128.5 tonnes (a 21.5 percent drop). For the 2025 reporting period, the consumer groups “Energy Providers” and “Electrical Industry/Appliance Manufacturing” have been consolidated into a new group: “electric power generation, transmission, and distribution.”
The semiconductor industry was another major consumer group, accounting for 82.8 tonnes. Despite sharp increases in consumer use between 2022 (up 58.6 percent) and 2023 (up 5.5 percent), followed by another rise in 2024 (up 8.8 percent), the amount supplied to the semiconductor industry in 2025 saw a slight decrease of 3.4 tonnes (-3.9 percent).
Nitrogen trifluoride (NF3), another potent greenhouse gas with a high Global Warming Potential of 16,100 and extremely slow atmospheric degradation, saw a total of 168.4 tonnes released in 2025. This gas was mainly provided to the semiconductor industry, equating to 2.7 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Compared to 2024, the overall amount released of NF3 decreased slightly by 3.3 tonnes (-1.9 percent).
It is important to note that the amount of SF6 supplied to industries is not the same as the amount released into the atmosphere; releases can happen, for instance, during the disposal of old soundproofing panels. For the 2024 national greenhouse gas reporting, calculations by the Federal Environment Agency showed that 1.6 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent of SF6 were directly released. This figure accounted for just 0.2 percent of Germany’s total greenhouse gas emissions, which were around 650 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent.
Conversely, NF3 was released in very small amounts, as determined by this calculation-specifically 0.02 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. For the actual amount released, preliminary figures for all fluorinated greenhouse gases are available for 2025, but it is not yet possible to differentiate the figures by individual gas type.
