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JULY 8TH 2024
Our latest climate-change analysis
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The Climate Issue
Our latest climate-change analysis
What Europe’s heat-pump row reveals
Vendeline von Bredow
Senior Germany Correspondent
“I went too far,” said Robert Habeck at a town-hall meeting this May. In the spring of 2023 Germany’s economy minister floated a bill that would have banned new gas and oil boilers and subsidised the installation of heat pumps. It was met with uproar. Headlines screamed about how this Heizhammer (“heat hammer”) would push ordinary Germans into debt. Polls suggested that four-fifths of voters were against the proposal. Mr Habeck described the episode as “a test of how far society is prepared to go to protect the climate”. The answer was not very far.
Mr Habeck’s bill was ultimately watered down to a law requiring all new heaters to run on at least 65% renewable energy. Germany’s heat-pump industry has not yet recovered from the furore, which resulted in hundreds of workers being laid off or furloughed. Meanwhile the debate over heat pumps—which is really a debate over what personal sacrifices the public will put up with in order to cut emissions—rages on across Europe.
Heat pumps are basically refrigerators that run in reverse, sucking in heat from outside and concentrating it. They are far more efficient than conventional boilers and, crucially, run off electricity, which can come from green sources. They are a cornerstone of Europe’s plan to decarbonise, given that buildings account for about 35% of all energy-related emissions. Early this year, the European Commission was meant to release a heat-pump action plan which would, among other things, set out how to reach the EU’s goal of having 60m heat pumps installed within its borders by 2030 (up from 20m today). But the publication was delayed, almost certainly because of worries about how it would play in European Parliament elections in June. In May 15 member states wrote to the commission bemoaning the postponement, and arguing that a lack of “clear political signals” to clean up heating and cooling risked jeopardising the bloc’s net-zero ambitions.
Part of the problem with heat pumps is that they are tricky and expensive to install. Larger than gas boilers, they need outside space and, in old homes, like many in Europe, extra insulation. Governments need to make their adoption as easy as possible, including improving how they help homeowners with the cost (Italy bungled a generous subsidy programme; grants elsewhere are often sluggishly administered). But they also must accept that cutting emissions at the speed and scale required will be unpopular and, at times, painful. As Europe braces itself for yet another summer of heatwaves and forest fires—clear consequences of climate change—the need for decisive action should be obvious.
Would you replace your boiler with a heat pump to help the climate? You can share your thoughts, and any feedback on this newsletter, here: [email protected].