German heating law draft details green fuels quota, drops 2045 fossil fuel ban
Tagesspiegel Background / Clean Energy Wire
The German economy ministry has put the government’s plans to shape the transition to climate-friendly heating into a new draft law, which provides details on a rising green gas quota and would eliminate the current 2045 deadline for phasing out fossil fuel heating, reported Tagesspiegel Background.
The draft translates a preliminary agreement by the government coalition of chancellor Friedrich Merz from February into legislation. It would drop the existing mandatory renewable energy quota for new heating systems, and allow homeowners to continue installing oil and gas boilers without restrictions.
Climate activists have heavily criticised the government plans, which “will significantly widen” the existing gap between Germany’s national climate targets and actual emissions, according to think tank calculations.
The coalition had agreed that new oil and gas boilers must meet a rising green fuel quota of 10 percent from 2029, and the new draft sets out further increases to the share step by step: 15 percent by 2030, 30 percent by 2035, and 60 percent by 2040, according to Tagesspiegel.
In addition, the draft law would abolish the existing provision that boilers may only be operated with fossil fuels until 31 December 2044.
The existing Building Energy Act (GEG), designed to chart a path towards climate-neutral heating, was passed in 2023 amid massive controversies that were described as “one of the greatest political dramas in recent German history.” Advocates of a rapid transition towards clean technologies such as heat pumps argued the law was key to meeting climate targets and pointed to the technology’s low long-term running costs, while critics argued that investment costs would overburden homeowners and tenants.
The government cabinet intends to approve the draft law on 13 May, reported Tagesspiegel. It will then enter parliamentary deliberations, which could take several months.
The Federation of German Heating Industry (BDH) welcomed the draft law. “The market needs stability and predictability,” it said, and emphasised that this was particularly important for state subsidy schemes in order to “replace the ageing heating stock.”