The Heating Transition, Climate Change, and Freedom

The 2023 amendment to the Building Energy Act, also known as ‘Habeck’s Heating Hammer’, was preceded by a veritable boiler room culture war. Talk of expropriation, paternalism, and the creation of an ‘energy Stasi’ fuelled outrage, stoked in particular by the AfD and also the CDU/CSU. As a result, the amendment was significantly watered down and its implementation linked to the development of municipal heat plans. 

In recent years, many local authorities have begun to prepare for the heating transition by initiating dialogue processes and making initial investments in a climate-neutral heating supply. Heat pump sales have also increased significantly in recent years, though with some fluctuations. These steps are important, as the share of renewable energy sources in the heating sector remains below 20 percent, and achieving the targets set out in the Federal Climate Act will be impossible without rapid emission reductions in this sector. 

The key points paper, now revised and renamed as the Building Modernisation Act, is notable not only for its regressive content—most notably the abolition of the mandatory 65 percent share of renewable energies for new heating systems—but also for the way it has been communicated. The leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Jens Spahn, declared that the new law would 'liberate the boiler room' and do away with petty bureaucratic restrictions. The minister responsible for the Act, Katherina Reiche (Economic Affairs and Energy), rejoiced that the Act restores freedom of choice, allowing tenants and homeowners to choose the type of heating system they wish to install. The claim that lifting the ban would restore people’s freedom perpetuates the polarization that emerged in 2023. In this perspective, fossil-fuelled heating systems are framed as an expression of freedom, while the reports of the Expert Council for Climate Issues—an advisory body to the German government that has repeatedly criticized the lack of progress in the building sector—are deliberately ignored. Crucially, a vision for a climate-neutral heat supply is not evident in the federal government's key point paper.

With the abolition of the 65 per cent rule and the adoption of the green gas quota, there is a risk of a fossil lock-in—in other words, an extension of the fossil era. This is because "green" gases are only available in very limited quantities and are very expensive. Moreover, it is extremely unlikely that this will change fundamentally in the future. As a result, tenants in particular will face considerable costs and it cannot be ruled out that gas infrastructure will continue to be predominantly fossil-fuelled in the future, jeopardizing the German government’s climate targets as a consequence. This win for ‘freedom of choice’ benefits the gas industry and the property sector; however, the majority of the population, especially tenants, still have no choice and will have to bear the costs. It is striking that the 2021 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court, which deemed parts of the Climate Protection Act unconstitutional for failing to protect the civil liberties of future generations, has been forgotten so quickly. 2021, it seems, lies in the distant past.