Economy Minister Habeck (Green Party) hopes to ban the use of new oil and gas heating systems. He will take the first step as early as 2024. According to a report by Bild, Economy Minister Habeck plans to ban new oil and gas heating systems. Habeck will soon submit a draft law.
Starting from 2024, only heating systems that generate heat from “at least 65% renewable energy” can be installed. This means that it is no longer possible to reinstall pure gas or oil heating systems. The installed heater will be allowed to continue operating for 30 years. It needs to be replaced later.
Starting from 2025, the new system will also be equipped with so-called smart meters so that it can be read from a distance.
We plan to completely ban the use of oil and natural gas for heating starting from 2045.
Ecological and environmental researcher Stefan Holzheu explained on Twitter that it is “absolutely reasonable” not to install new oil and gas heating systems from 2024 due to climate protection reasons. In principle, this is not a complete ban, as a hybrid solution consisting of heat pumps and gas condensing boilers can still be installed.
Habeck Plan to Ban Oil and Gas Heating
A few days ago, Federal Economy Secretary Harbeck announced a strong need to support a greater shift towards climate friendly heating systems.
He said on Wednesday that the funds must be able to enable people with lower budgets to renovate houses, install heat pumps, or dismantle gas boilers. The federal government must create financial means to compensate for the difference in cheaper gas heating, so that the operation and maintenance of new technologies can be affordable. Although these have been linearly increasing for a period of time, Habeck believes that “from the beginning, I believed that strong support was needed to prevent climate neutral heat production demand from causing social and political problems“
Huge social and political reactions
According to media reports, Habeck plans to seek approval from the Traffic Light Alliance for a proposal to ban the use of new oil and gas heating systems starting from early March.
Kai Waranecke, the head of Haus&Grund, loudly called out, “The laws of the green fairy tale world! It’s time for the Prime Minister to intervene now
Axel Gedaschko, the president of the housing industry, has issued a warning that this measure will trigger a new round of price explosions in the construction industry: “If we have to replace over one million fossil fuel heating systems in Germany every year from 2026, on the one hand, it will be very, very expensive, and on the other hand, there will be a lack of capacity in various regions to achieve this specification and goal.” Ultimately, it is still a matter of who will pay and how to pay.
Liberal Democratic Party politicians have also criticized Habermann and his economic climate department for “often having illusions that the Liberal Democratic Party will not participate”.
In addition to the Liberal Democratic Party, the Social Democratic Party is also obstructing this proposal. Construction Minister Klara Geywitz (SPD) and others have stated that approval will not be obtained without improvements. There are reports that the federal government hopes to provide homeowners with more options to comply with the provisions of this special decision: heat pumps and hybrid devices, gas heating using sustainable biomethane, green hydrogen, or other green gases, biomass heating, direct heating electric heating, or connecting to district heating networks.