State should cover up to 100% of low-income households’ energy renovation costs – think tank
Clean Energy Wire
The German government should reform building efficiency and housing regulations to better support low and middle-income households through the transition to sustainable heating systems, climate justice think tank Zukunft KlimaSozial has said. Public funding should cover up to 100 percent of the costs of efficiency improvements or a climate-friendly heating system for low and middle-income households through a combination of subsidies and low-interest loans, the think tank said in a report.
“To achieve climate targets in the building sector without placing an excessive financial burden on anyone, we need a mix of targeted, socially-graded subsidies and simple implementation,” said Brigitte Knopf, director of Zukunft KlimaSozial.
The think tank said that the funding should be directed to the worst performing buildings and called for a support scheme to be introduced so that landlords taking on renovations do not excessively raise rents for their tenants.
Building energy legislation has been the subject of intense political debate in Germany. Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) campaigned on a platform to scrap the country’s controversial heating law, which aims to pave the way to climate-friendly heating systems, ahead of this year’s election in February. The law became mired in controversy over the higher investment costs of heat pump systems compared to fossil fuel boilers when it was introduced by the previous coalition government.
However, despite the campaign rhetoric, many experts believe that the new government is more likely to simply rename the act without changing its underlying framework. Industry groups have been calling on the government to keep the law in place for the sake of business confidence. The smaller governing coalition partner, the SPD, is also unlikely to vote to repeal the flagship sustainable heating bill passed under the previous government, of which it was a part of.
Vulnerable households in Germany need more state help to tackle energy poverty, a report by the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) said recently. The authors found that low-income households are "unable to react sufficiently to rises in fossil fuel costs, for example as a result of CO2 pricing, by investing in energy-efficient refurbishment or renewable heat".
