Energy transition in Germany's buildings should consider social justice – report
Clean Energy Wire
The climate-friendly conversion of Germany's building sector should include socially-just financing models, as housing, heating and retrofitting costs increasingly place a burden on citizens, according to a report by the country's energy agency (dena). In collaboration with the Institute for Applied Ecology (Öko-Institut), the authors found that lower-income households spend a significantly higher proportion of their budget on housing and heating costs than wealthier households. The costs of heating with gas and oil will rise steadily in the coming years due to national and EU emission trading policies, which make using fossil fuels more expensive.
The proportion of households saying they cannot adequately heat their homes increased from 3.3 percent in 2021 to 8.2 percent last year. The number of households considered disadvantaged in terms of heating energy expenditure has reached 3.1 million out of a total of some 43 million households in Germany, according to the report, which examines how climate policy and social issues in the building sector are related. "Without a socially just organisation of the energy transition in the building sector and a fair distribution of costs and benefits, this large-scale project will lack acceptance and support," dena head Corinna Enders said.
Structural measures such as energy-efficiency renovations show the highest potential, especially when compared to pure behavioural changes and other measures with low investment costs, the authors wrote. Access to quality information around available options and their respective benefits, as well as transparent changes to construction and energy prices, are all prerequisites for owners to implement such structural measures on their buildings.
Germany's controversial debated around the phase-out of fossil fuel heating systesm in the summer of 2023 highlighted the importance of social acceptance for the effective implementation of energy transition measures. Germany's buildings sector repeatedly has failed its emission reduction targets since they were introduced in 2020.
