Germany’s heating reform would widen gap between emissions and climate targets – researchers
Clean Energy Wire
The German government’s proposed heating reforms would lead to a substantial increase of projected emissions and make it more difficult to reach climate targets, according to a report by environmental think tank Öko-Institut. Compared to the current legal framework, the proposal - known as the Building Modernisation Act – would increase the gap between expected cumulative emissions and the binding emissions budget until 2040 by between 108 and 172 million tonnes, the report said.
The main reason for the projected increase of emissions is the planned abolition of the requirement that newly installed heating systems run on at least 65 percent of renewable energy, the authors said.
“The calculations to date clearly show that the 65 percent rule has a significant impact on the emissions path of the building sector,” Öko-Institut researcher Sibylle Braungardt said in a press release. “If this binding standard is removed, a key driver for the switch to renewable heat will be missing – and the transformation will slow down significantly.”
The new heating framework obliges building owners to gradually increase the share of clean energy in their heating systems, and requires energy suppliers to gradually increase the share of “green gas” or “green oil” in their networks to bring down fossil fuel use, starting with a quota of 10 percent in 2029. However, future quotas still need to be determined, which will have a significant impact on expected emissions, the researchers explained.
Environmental NGO BUND said the Öko-Institut’s calculations was further evidence that the proposed reform is a “frontal attack on climate protection”.
Germany’s environment ministry is legally required to present Germany’s new Climate Action Programme before the end of this month, which must spell out in detail how the country plans to reach its 2030 and 2040 climate targets. Additional emissions in the building sector would require the government to compensate in other sectors.