Abstract: From the early 1990s to the present, German climate protection policy has evolved from “environmental policy” to “win-win strategy” then to “reaching integration”. At the same time, the policies are well implemented and have achieved good results. Responding to the impact of climate change, ensuring energy security, keeping the national competitiveness, promoting the environmental protection diplomacy, supporting the public with strong environmental awareness and comprehensively considering cost-benefit are the key motivations for the development of German climate protection policy. German climate protection policy and its motivations provide significant references for China’s policy-making of climate protection policy and the realizing of the goals of energy-saving and emission reduction.