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German Environmental Aid to challenge new heating law in court
🇩🇪 Germany /Environment & Climate

German Environmental Aid to challenge new heating law in court

From Die Zeit · () German

Translated from German, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.

At a glance

News Named sources New plan
  • The German Environmental Aid (DUH) plans to challenge the new heating law in the Federal Constitutional Court.
  • DUH argues the law, which allows new gas and oil heating systems under certain conditions, prevents Germany from reaching its climate neutrality goal by 2045.
  • The organization will file a constitutional complaint in September, citing concerns about future costs for tenants and the law's impact on climate targets.

The German Environmental Aid (DUH) is preparing to take the government's new heating law to the Federal Constitutional Court. The organization's federal managing director, Barbara Metz, stated that their lawyer is drafting a constitutional complaint, which they aim to submit in September.

Now we know what this law looks like in its final form. Our lawyer Remo Klinger is now drafting the constitutional complaint. We will be ready to file it with the Federal Constitutional Court in September.

— Barbara MetzFederal managing director of the German Environmental Aid (DUH), speaking to the German Press Agency about the new heating law.

Metz criticized the law, officially known as the Building Modernization Act, for undermining Germany's climate neutrality goal for 2045. She highlighted that the law permits the installation of oil and gas heating systems even after 2044, a provision she claims was removed from the previous Building Energy Act.

The most serious thing is: the goal of climate neutrality in 2045 cannot be achieved with this law.

— Barbara MetzExplaining the DUH's primary objection to the new heating law.

The revised law allows new gas and oil heating systems to be installed if they use a gradually increasing proportion of CO2-neutral fuels starting in 2029. A "green gas quota" for existing heating systems is also planned from 2028, beginning at one percent, though details remain unclear. This reform significantly loosens the previous requirement that every newly installed heating system must run on 65 percent renewable energy.

Tenants have no say in what technology is installed in their basement. The law opens up the possibility again to install oil and gas heating systems, with unknown costs that will fall on people.

— Barbara MetzCriticizing the law's impact on tenants and the potential financial burden.

DUH also raised concerns about the "unknown costs" for tenants and the uncertainty surrounding the availability and expense of the "biogas staircase" mechanism, which mandates the use of biogas over time. Metz emphasized that Article 20a of the German Basic Law, which obliges the state to protect natural resources for future generations, is at stake if the climate neutrality targets, particularly in the building sector, are missed.

Article 20a will play a significant role in the constitutional complaint. If climate neutrality is missed in the building sector, the achievement of the overall goal is called into question, because the building sector is a significant sector.

— Barbara MetzExplaining the legal basis for the constitutional complaint, referencing Germany's Basic Law.
DistantNews Editorial

Originally published by Die Zeit in German. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.

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