Heating law: how to proceed
Bundestag can finally get to it – and has to clarify a lot
6/15/2023 5:39 am
The traffic light coalition celebrates its basic agreement on the heating law. Today it will be read for the first time in the Bundestag in order to be ready before the summer break. However, the large number of unanswered questions stands in the way of a successful summary procedure.
The heating law will be discussed for the first time in the Bundestag today – but it’s not finished yet. Before a decision can be reached by July 7th at the latest, several detailed questions still have to be clarified, especially in questions that are crucial for citizens.
After the so-called first reading in Parliament, the work of the Bundestag committees begins. There, experts are consulted and changes are incorporated into the legal text. The guard rails of the traffic light parliamentary groups leave the following points open, which could also cause disputes among the SPD, Greens and FDP:
– Financial support: What is certain is that there should be state subsidies for new, climate-friendly heating systems. This should be paid for from the so-called climate and transformation fund and “take into account the individual needs and social hardships right down to the middle of society as precisely as possible”. However, the parliamentary groups have not yet said anything about the amount of the funding. It is also unclear whether there are any income limits, i.e. the rich have no or a lower entitlement.
– Exception rules: So far, it was planned that the obligation to install climate-friendly heating should only apply to owners up to the age of 80. The reason: Older people hardly get the credit they may need. This limit, which critics see as arbitrary, is still being debated. There is a proposal to bring it down to retirement age, but that would free a great many because of the high average age of homeowners.
– Modernization contribution: There is a dilemma here. On the one hand, tenants want to be protected from the high costs of installing a new heating system, and on the other hand, they want to give landlords an incentive to invest. There should therefore be a “further modernization levy” that takes effect if you use state subsidies and the tenants benefit financially from the changeover. Details are completely open.
– Transitional periods: So far it is unclear what will happen if someone now installs a gas heating system that can be converted to hydrogen, but their municipality later does not plan a gas network that is compatible with it. The traffic light factions have only stipulated that “reasonable transitional periods for switching to the new technology” should then apply. How much time you get is highly competitive.
The traffic light factions have put themselves under pressure in terms of time: there are only three weeks of meetings before the planned decision and the summer break. Outside of these weeks, many MPs are not in Berlin, but have appointments in the constituency. Representatives of the municipalities and the housing industry called for the law not to be passed until autumn. “There are still so many individual questions that cannot be clarified quickly,” said the general manager of the German Association of Towns and Municipalities, Gerd Landsberg, of the “Bild” newspaper.
It is unclear when the Federal Council will then deal with the law. Before the summer break, this would only work if the deadline was shortened on July 7th. However, the Federal Council can at most raise objections to the law; approval is not required. The law could then have an impact on the first citizens as early as January – namely if a new building is built or the heating system breaks down and the municipality already has a heating plan. In all other cases there is more time.