The goal of the traffic light coalition is ambitious: From 2024, a ban on oil and gas heating will apply. But the resistance of the FDP does not ebb and Grimm also thinks little of the general ban. The necessary speed of implementation can hardly be maintained, she warns and advises alternatives.
Economics Veronika Grimm has criticized the federal government's plan to ban new gas and oil heating systems from 2024. "Generally banning gas heaters is wrong," Grimm told the Süddeutsche Zeitung. "The government could shoot itself in the foot with such bans." There is a risk of inefficiency if, for example, companies cannot use gas and later hydrogen for heating. Possibly "the houses could not be renovated quickly enough, heat pumps manufactured and installed to replace the gas heaters," said the energy expert, who is a member of the Advisory Council.
The dispute over the extensive ban on oil and gas heating is also coming to a head in the "traffic light" coalition. The FDP has already announced resistance to the plans of Economics Minister Robert Habeck. Since the plans became known, she has accused the coalition partners of going far beyond the agreements made and wants to stop them.
Last week, a joint draft bill from the Greens-led Ministry of Economic Affairs and the SPD-led Ministry of Construction became known. Accordingly, the installation of new gas and oil heating systems should be banned from 2024. In the coalition agreement, the 65 percent target for new heating systems is not fixed until the beginning of 2025. Because of the Ukraine war, the coalition had already decided a year ago that this requirement should apply "if possible" from the beginning of 2024. The plans are now being finalised, but there should be exceptions.
Economics Grimm now instead suggested raising the CO2 price in the heating sector in order to make replacing old heating systems more attractive. According to the media report, she also called for renewable energies such as wind and sun to be expanded more quickly.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced on Monday after the federal cabinet meeting in Schloss Meseberg that by 2030 four to five new wind turbines would have to be set up every day and the equivalent of more than 40 football pitches full of solar systems every day. Grimm said: "The government wants to be four times as fast as planned, but unfortunately it doesn't look like it at all." The government must speed up the planning and approval of plants.
