“Planned energy efficiency law in buildings postponed”

Germany’s governing conservative parties CDU and CSU risk undermining one of the country’s key climate protection targets by postponing the adoption of a planned law on energy efficiency in public buildings, Jens Tartler writes in Der Tagesspiegel. Several members of the conservative parties lamented that the efficiency standard for buildings contained in the law violated principles of economic viability and could drive up prices for new housing space, Tartler explains. The conservative politicians said they had “significant doubts” whether the efforts associated with the law are commensurate with the resulting emissions reduction, he writes. The Green Party criticised the conservatives’ decision, saying the efficiency standards had long been established and were well received by Germany’s business development bank KfW, he adds.
The German Energy Agency (dena) called for a swift adoption of the law. In a press release, dena’s director Andreas Kuhlmann said he regretted the postponement since the implementation of efficiency standards in public buildings was a chance for public authorities to lead by example. Kuhlmann called the new efficiency standard “ambitious but feasible” and said he hoped the law was not going to fail “on the home stretch".

Read the article in German here and the press release in German here.

For more information, see the CLEW factsheet The Energiewende and Efficiency.