Four million fossil fuel heating systems in Germany reach legal runtime limit in 2024

About four million fossil heating systems in Germany will reach their legal runtime limit of 30 years in 2024, newspaper Augsburger Allgemeine Zeitung reported based on a parliamentary inquiry by the conservative opposition party CDU. But many of the about 1.9 million oil heating systems and 2.1 million gas heating systems that will become too old next year are likely to be exempt from an immediate replacement due to exemptions in the country’s existing building energy law, the government said in its answer to the inquiry. Conservative parliamentary faction co-leader Andreas Jung warned against “a continued run on oil and gas heating systems” if the economy and climate action ministry under Green Party minister Robert Habeck did not modify his proposal for a new law on heating decarbonisation in the building stock. More financial support – rather than the proposed de facto ban on installing new fossil fuel heating systems - would provide a better incentive for homeowners to switch to decarbonised systems, Jung added.

Plans by the economy and climate action ministry for a de facto ban on the installation of new fossil fuel-run heating systems from 2024 have led to fierce rejection by opposition parties and also the Greens coalition partner Free Democrats (FDP), leading Habeck to review the reform. Germany’s building sector has missed its emission reduction targets three years in a row, as the majority of homes are heated with fossil fuels and modernisation of the existing building stock is lagging.