The federal government’s heating plans are making many Germans frown. But the measures could be tightened in some points.
Climate protection is important, but heat pumps and their costs are the subject of debate in Germany. Now the debate is moving again: Important committees in the Bundesrat are recommending significant changes to the Building Energy Act, which the federal government intends to pass before the summer break.
The law means an end to installments for conventional oil and gas heating systems in Germany: from 2024, no new fossil heating systems should be installed, and every newly installed heating system should be operated with 65 percent renewable energies. An expensive endeavor that could force some people to go into debt.
The draft law from the economics and construction ministries is being torn apart not only by the opposition, but also by the liberal coalition partner. Economics Minister Robert Habeck first has to get it through the Bundestag and then through the Bundesrat.
These changes are recommended
According to the recommendations published on Tuesday by the housing, work, interior, economic and environmental committees of the state chamber, which are available on t-online, the law is even to be tightened in some places: especially according to plans by the Green state ministers in the environment committee. However, the countries also want to weaken it on several points. An overview:
- The Committee on Urban Planning, Housing and Regional Planning, demands that the new heating law should only come into force three years later than planned: from January 1, 2027. The reasons given are existing supply bottlenecks for heat pumps, a lack of human resources and further training that is still required. “January 1, 2027 is realistic for a more implementation-oriented approach. Otherwise, it can already be assumed that the target will not be met,” it says.
- The Environment Committee of the Federal Council, in which 11 of the 16 state minister posts are occupied by the Greens, wants that Opportunities for installing new heaters that could run on hydrogen in the future, remove from the law. These set “wrong incentives” for consumers, “because the quantities of hydrogen will remain scarce in the long term and the prices will be high”. An assessment that is not shared in the FDP.
- The federal government wants to achieve a climate-neutral building stock by 2045. However, according to the environment committee, some countries are aiming for climate neutrality earlier. In order to achieve this, another requirement of the Environment Committee is that it would be possible for the federal states “to enact regulations on operating bans for heating boilers with fossil fuels at an earlier stage”. The following sentence should therefore be included in the law in the future: “In addition, the countries can place further restrictions on the operation of boilers that run on fossil fuels.”
- The Environment Committee also wanted the exceptions to the Obligation to audit and optimize heating systems for small residential buildings cancel. Homes with fewer than six dwelling units accounted for the majority of all dwellings and should therefore not be exempted from heating optimization regulations,” it said. The Housing Committee, however, wants the words “with at least six dwellings” to be replaced by the words “with at least four replace “apartments”.
- Also the Exceptions for people over the age of 80 are to be removed from the heating reform. The Environment Committee considers an age regulation to be constitutionally questionable. “This rigid age limit meets constitutional doubts against the background of the principle of equal treatment from Article 3 of the Basic Law”. The housing committee, on the other hand, called for an exemption obligation to be incorporated into the law from “retirement age”.
- Landlords should also Allocation of investment and installation costs of new climate-friendly heating systems to their tenants will be banned. The draft law currently provides that 50 percent of the costs may be passed on to the rent.
- The Housing Committee also calls for that the climate bonuses be changed. Certain bonuses should therefore only be given to owners who exceed the requirement of at least 65 percent of heating systems operated by renewable energies. All owners who basically meet this mark should get bonuses.
The implementation of the proposed law could take a long time: the Federal Council does not have to agree to the planned heating law, but can lodge an objection if the controversial points are not clarified. Then the Bundestag would have to do it again – and the FDP would also have to agree to the law. There has not yet been any official confirmation of an initiative to make changes to the paper.
