The Federal Government apparently does not plan more stringent specifications for energy standards of real estate. This emerges from a draft of the so-called building energy law, which should be approved on Wednesday by the Cabinet.
A review of the energy requirements for new construction and inventory should take place only in 2023, it says in the Cabinet template of the responsible Ministry of Economic Affairs, which exists the SPIEGEL and reported on the news agency dpa. It is part of the climate change decisions of the government of September, the so-called climate package.
In addition to the transport and energy sectors, the building sector is one of the major problem areas of the German energy transition. A good 14 percent of German greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to it, especially for the operation of heating systems and the provision of hot water. Another 15 percent are generated in the energy industry for the supply of heat in buildings.
Ministry of the Environment had demanded stricter standards
The European Union has ambitious requirements for building efficiency. The Ministry of the Environment had therefore already advocated stricter energy standards in buildings in May. The requirements at EU level would require "a tightening of the requirements level compared to the current standard," it said at the time in an internal note to an earlier draft of the Building Energy Act.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs did not follow the recommendation in the current draft - even though the government now has ambitious CO2 savings plans. According to the Climate Change Act recently adopted by the Cabinet, CO2 emissions in the building sector will have to drop from 118 million tons to 70 million tons by 2030.
The Environmental Protection Association BUND considers these climate protection goals as "not achievable" with the specifications of the Building Energy Act. Left-wing MP Lorenz-Gösta Beutin says the federal government was "buckled by the pressure of the construction industry and oil companies, which has come at the expense of innovation and climate protection".
Hollow ban on gas or oil boilers
The Building Energy Act also provides for a ban on old gas or oil boilers. New oil heaters are banned from 2026 - unless a house can be supplied neither with gas nor with district heating and can not be heated with renewable energies.
Anyone who has his old oil heating replaced by a more climate-friendly model, should get an "attractive exchange premium", it says in the draft. The leaders of the Union and SPD had decided that the premium should be 40 percent of the cost. In addition, the exchange can be deducted for tax purposes.
Beutin also criticizes this regulation. "The oil heating ban comes too late, applies only to new buildings and is full of exceptions," he says.
Gas or oil boilers installed in 1991 or later may only be operated for 30 years, which is currently regulated by law elsewhere. Boilers installed or installed before 1 January 1991 may no longer be operated.