The Economics Minister wants to support low-income households in particular when replacing the heating system.
(Photo: IMAGO/Bernd Elmenthaler)
Berlin Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck wants to accompany the increased switch to climate-friendly heating systems from 2024 with a social support program worth billions. This should ensure that households with low and middle incomes in particular could also afford this change, the Greens politician announced on Thursday. The funding will be based on income for the first time.
From 2024, newly installed heating systems should be operated with at least 65 percent from renewable energies. This practically means the end for new gas and oil heating systems. However, Habeck announced that there would be numerous exceptions and transitional periods.
In addition, Habeck sees progress in the climate-friendly restructuring of the economy and society. “Of course there is still a lot to do, the tasks are great,” said the Green politician in a statement published in Berlin on Thursday. “But despite everything, we are at the beginning of a social dynamic. The start of the renewal is done.”
Habeck’s ministry published a “workshop report” that takes stock of the efforts made to date, for example to expand renewable energies, and offers an outlook on further projects. According to the concept (“Renewing prosperity in a climate-neutral manner”), key points for a wind-on-shore strategy are to be presented at a wind summit on March 22, which, among other things, deals with better financing conditions for wind turbines and proposals for the rapid provision of more space .
By the summer, Habeck intends to use a “power plant strategy” to show how the expansion and modernization of capacity in power plants to a volume of 17 to 25 gigawatts should be managed by 2030. The power plants should be able to use more climate-friendly hydrogen.
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