Natural gas exit in heating must be initiated in the coming years – economy ministry

The German economy ministry (BMWi)said that the phase out of natural gas in heating must be initiated soon for Germany to become climate neutral by 2050, due to long investment cycles and necessary infrastructure decisions, reports Tagesspiegel Background. In an impulse paper for a stakeholder dialogue on climate neutral heating, the ministry wrote that natural gas plays an important role for a transition period but, by 2050, natural gas would only be used selectively (with carbon capture and storage/usage - CCS/CCU), if at all. “Against the backdrop of the long investment periods in the heating sector and the necessary infrastructure decisions for a future heat supply, the phase-out of natural gas must be prepared in the coming years,” the ministry said. It plans to present first results from the stakeholder dialogue before the parliamentary summer break 2021.

Natural gas currently covers a quarter of German primary energy consumption, second only to the country’s most important energy source, mineral oil. Most gas is used for heating and cooling in households and public buildings and for process heat in industry.