Germans want more transparency and justice in shift to clean heating and mobility – researchers
Clean Energy Wire
People in Germany would like to see more factual information around policies to make heating and transport more climate-friendly, such as carbon pricing, and they attach great importance to a socially just distribution of costs and transparency in financing, a set of surveys conducted by research group Ariadne has found. "The population is open to changes in transport policy and building heating, provided that these are transparent, fair and effective," the group wrote in a press release.
Citizens criticised the lack of planning security ensuing from uncertainties around Germany's plan to gradually phase out oil and gas boilers. "The social impact of the heating transition was underestimated when the law was drafted," Ariadne wrote. While citizens generally support the heating transition, they point to considerable uncertainty due to poor communication, polarising media coverage and unclear political action. A lack of financial resources and high bureaucratic hurdles to access subsidies also get in the way to making homes less polluting.
On the transition to cleaner mobility, the researchers found that local public transport should be significantly cheaper than private cars to incentivise the switch. However, without attractive and affordable options, it would be close to impossible for citizens to accept private transport restrictions or cost increases, they concluded. Purchase premiums or a socially-tiered bonus system for electric cars were both good ways to incentivise the uptake of electric vehicles, so long as the measures did not only benefit higher income groups. "Successful examples from other countries are a good way to reduce reservations among citizens," said author Katja Treichel-Grass.
The findings are based on two citizen consultation forums held in June 2024, where people from across Germany were invited to discuss their views, motivations and arguments on the heating and transport transitions – both sectors laggards when it comes to emissions cutting efforts. Participants had "a lot of prior knowledge" on the heating transition, including heating system replacements and energy efficiency renovations. On the other hand, topics such as CO2 pricing or the so-called climate bonus - direct payments to citizens to compensate for the costs of climate policies - "were much more complicated," the researchers said.
The research aims to find long-term effective and sustainable policy measures for the energy transition alongside society. While a large majority of the population in Germany is in favour of climate action, support varies widely for individual measures.
