Climate effect of action programme in German buildings sector questionable ā expert council
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A first attempt to reduce excess emissions in Germany's buildings sector by launching an additional home energy refurbishment support programme is likely to be insufficient, according to the Council of Experts on Climate Change. Following the rules of the Climate Action Law, the energy ministry (BMWi) and the ministry for the interior (BMI) in July this year presented an āimmediate action programmeā detailing how the 2 million tonnes of CO2 emitted by the buildings sector on top of its 2020 budget of 118 million tonnes can be reduced within the next years. The BMWi said in an e-mailed statement that a draft by the expert council tasked with the evaluation of emission data and climate action measures found that the āassumptions and evaluations submitted in the immediate action programme had a tendency to overestimate their effectā. The final version of the expert councilās evaluation is expected next week.
The measure proposed by the BMWi and BMI in July is to increase the funds in the āFederal Promotion of Efficient Buildings (BEG)" programme by another 5.8 billion euros. The programme is running very successfully, the BMWi said, having granted a record 6.1 billion euros for new energy efficient housing and refurbishments in the first half of 2021. But the environment ministry overseeing sectoral compliance with the Climate Action Law has argued that this doesnāt ensure the sector will stay within its annual emission budgets for the coming years and demanded that the action plan be adapted. The BMWi, on the other hand, stated that the Climate Action Law's wording is unclear ābecause it doesnāt say by when or within what time an identified CO2 reduction gap must be closedā. Both the interpretation of the law and the decision whether the buildings sector's immediate action programme is sufficient will have to be taken by the government cabinet.
German homesĀ are a big hurdleĀ on the path to greenhouse gas neutrality, as they are responsible for around one-third of the countryās emissions. Nearly two-thirds are still heated with fossil fuels and most of them also need to be modernised to lower energy demand.