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Building Minister Geywitz: Very well insulated buildings "can only be achieved with high-tech solutions and lots of insulating material"
Photo: Peter Rigaud / DER SPIEGEL
Building Minister Klara Geywitz has met with massive criticism of her housing policy from the Green coalition partner.
The Greens member of the Bundestag, Kassem Taher Saleh, calls on the SPD minister to do more to protect the climate.
If Geywitz is serious about it, it needs "more than just a few changes in the building code," criticized Taher Saleh, chairman of his party's housing committee.
The Green calls for a »broader use« of renewable insulating materials such as straw and flax in the conversion and renovation of buildings.
These materials should be specifically promoted by the federal government.
On the subject of energy efficiency, Geywitz recently told SPIEGEL that very well insulated buildings "can only be achieved with high-tech solutions and a lot of insulating material".
This also produces CO₂.
"Don't shift responsibility to the federal states"
Taher Saleh is calling for the SPD-led ministry to rethink.
"The construction minister scolds insulation materials for having a lot of gray energy," says Tager Saleh.
"The logical consequence is ecological insulating materials." The framework conditions would have to be changed for this.
A large lever for this lies in the Ministry of Construction.
According to the Green MP, one can achieve a broader use of ecological building materials by giving them preferential treatment in the law and targeting them more specifically in the refurbishment funding.
The federal government could also "not entirely shift the responsibility to the federal states".
In order to change the model building code, Geywitz would have to gather those federal states behind him "that are ready to finally put the building sector on the right climate path and to initiate the necessary conversion culture".
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