BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – After heated debates about the heating law, Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck has announced proposals for improvements. “I take… the criticism and social concerns of many very seriously,” said the Green politician to the newspapers of the Funke media group (Saturday). “I want to make the law better.”
His claim is not only to unite the coalition factions behind the law, but also to get social support for climate protection, said the minister. “That’s why I will be holding a series of talks with my new State Secretary Philipp Nimmermann over the next week, including with associations, and then submitting my suggestions again.”
Habeck identified four areas for improvement. “When it came to the starting point, I would consider staggering to be an option: We could start switching for new buildings from January 1, 2024. This then affects the new buildings that will be approved from January.” In the case of existing buildings, he wants to accommodate the desire for more time, where the challenges are greater. “And in view of the concerns about the lack of craftsmen and delivery bottlenecks, a little more time is also a help.” How much more should be agreed in the talks and in the parliamentary process.
“You can heat climate-friendly in several ways,” said Habeck. The draft law is already open to technology. “But we should strengthen that again, as the debate about wood pellets shows.” A package of measures for the expansion of local and district heating is also to be presented soon. “The Heat Planning Act that has just been presented will also give heat networks a boost. And then I think it would make sense to better synchronize the transition periods with the construction and expansion of a heat network.”
The transition periods should also be checked again. “And it needs a pragmatic, unbureaucratic hardship regulation that ensures that nobody is asked to do anything that he or she cannot afford.”
It is important that the law goes through the Bundestag before the summer break. “We now need a willingness to compromise on all sides in order not to drive society further apart in this huge task, but to rally it behind affordable, pragmatic climate protection that is appropriate to the drastic nature of the climate crisis.”/hrz/DP/nas