CDU politician Jens Spahn attacks the government’s heating plans. Too one-sided, thinks a fellow discussant and makes him an unusual suggestion.
The heat transition is currently heating up emotions like no other topic. Too hasty, too ambitious, too expensive – these are some of the most common allegations against the plans of the federal government. Talk show presenter Anne Will took on the socially hotly debated question on Sunday evening and wanted to know from her guests: “The end of oil and gas heating – high time or hasty plan?”
Nevertheless, Geywitz had a reminder ready for anyone who was considering having a new fossil fuel heating system installed before the deadline. They are on the way to investing “good money in outdated technology”. In addition, CO2 pricing will make heating “extremely expensive” for these people in a few years.
Guests
- Klara Geywitz (SPD), federal building minister
- Jens Spahn, CDU executive committee member
- Kai H. Warnecke, President of Haus & Grund Germany e. V
- Hermann-Josef Tenhagen, Editor-in-Chief “Finanztip”
- Ann-Kathrin Büüsker, Deutschlandfunk journalist
The fact that new heating systems are to be operated with at least 65 percent renewable energy from 2024 is a problem for many citizens – from property owners to tenants. The goal of ensuring a warm home in a more climate-friendly manner is definitely met with approval. What worries me is the hassle and expense. Especially against the background of high inflation and energy prices.
Financial expert criticizes greed for profit among craftsmen
The uncertainty is great, confirmed Hermann-Josef Tenhagen. In addition, some craftsmen would “currently take 45,000 euros for a heat pump for which they called 25,000 in 2021,” complained the financial expert. Apparently there are some in the industry who want to benefit from people’s plight.
Tenhagen’s advice to anyone who can foresee that they will soon have to replace their old heating system: first make a plan, if necessary use a used thermal boiler and use the statutory period of three years. “You don’t have a big problem,” the editor-in-chief of the money guide “Finanztip” tried to calm those affected.
Kai Warnecke, the lobbyist for private real estate owners, saw things differently. The federal government is preventing an individual renovation schedule by putting the horse before the horse, he noted. It is neither clear which forms of energy will be available to homeowners in the future, nor will prices fall in the foreseeable future. “You don’t know today, and you don’t know in this three-year period either, what to install, and then you might install twice. Nobody can afford that,” complained Warnecke.
Heat pump dominates discussion about heating solution
The president of the central association Haus & Grund Deutschland e. V. ultimately agreed with the other talk participants that in most cases it should end with a heat pump. A development that opposition politician Jens Spahn criticized as being caused by politics. “It’s so narrow that the most expensive solution for everyone is the forced solution,” complained the Christian Democrat.
A lack of openness to technology was one of the more harmless allegations that Spahn made against the federal government. In view of the differences of opinion within the traffic lights, the heat transition would turn into a chaos turn, the building minister would become a building freeze minister. Partial expropriations, frustrated citizens and “a re-ideologization of climate protection policy” – Spahn left no good hair on the government coalition’s plans. “In the end you want air sovereignty over the boiler room,” he accused Geywitz.
