Dispute over heating law: FDP does not want any bans and prefers to rely on CO2 price

The dispute over the heating law has been raging fiercely for weeks. The FDP wants to completely reconsider the bill – and puts the C02 price in the foreground.

Berlin – The heating law is dividing the coalition. The draft of the so-called Building Energy Act stipulates that from 1 January 2024, 65 percent of every new heating system must be powered by renewable energies. The requirement also means the end of gas and oil heating systems.

For weeks, there has been a dispute between the government and the opposition, but also within the coalition. The SPD and the Greens are pushing for a Bundestag resolution on the law before the summer break. Among other things, the FDP is calling for a postponement of the plans and is pushing for improvements.

FDP wants to rethink the core of the heating law – and relies on CO2 price

The FDP would like to reconsider the core of the draft. The energy policy spokesman for the parliamentary group, Michael Kruse, told the Rheinische Post: "In view of the restructuring in the top management of the ministry, Minister Habeck should propose a new, realistic timetable for the heating law and use the time until then to fundamentally revise it."

The Liberals want to rely on the effect of a CO2 price instead of a ban: "The prospectively rising CO2 price in emissions trading is the best incentive for people to reduce emissions when heating and driving," said FDP parliamentary group deputy Lukas Köhler to the Handelsblatt. "In combination with climate money as a real financial relief, we can achieve our climate goals in a guaranteed, cost-effective and socially acceptable manner."

The FDP parliamentary group is therefore calling for "small-scale climate protection policy to be ended and instead the success story of emissions trading to be continued," Köhler told the magazine. "If we introduce a national emissions trading system for transport and buildings as early as 2024, as proposed by the FDP, we can save ourselves a lot of regulations and unnecessary technology bans."

Climate researcher wants to focus on the CO2 price: "Smarter than the prohibition and bidding policy"

Climate researcher Ottmar Edenhofer also advocates completely changing the controversial law and relying on the CO2 price. "The traffic light has become tangled up in climate protection," the director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) told the Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung. "My recommendation would be to take a deep breath, take a step back and make a new attempt at the heating transition."

He argues that the CO2 price should be fully investigated: "It is wiser to let the national emissions trading system with emission caps work immediately than the prohibition and bidding policy," he said. For example, heating with gas could be gradually but significantly more expensive. Then people would switch to lower-CO2 heating systems of their own accord. There is also a need for clear government communication as to who will be protected from price increases with which refunds.

CO2 price: "Highly dangerous bet on ideal-typical assumptions"

However, Felix Matthes, research coordinator in the field of energy and climate protection at the Oeko-Institut, does not think it makes sense to focus solely on the CO2 price. "Behind this lies a highly dangerous bet on ideal-typical and ultimately under-complex assumptions of economic textbooks," Matthes told Handelsblatt. That is why this approach is not seriously pursued anywhere internationally.

With material from dpa and AFP