Digital Press Kit for Press Release No. 26/2018 IG Metall and BDH Call for a Long-Term Strategy for the Transformation of the Heating Market

Frankfurt am Main/Berlin – According to the Federal Association of the German Heating Industry (BDH) and IG Metall, the heating market and its employees play a crucial role in achieving climate goals. In a joint future memorandum, the two organizations call on the new federal government to create suitable framework conditions for implementing the heating transition, as outlined in the coalition agreement.

“The heating industry employs around 74,000 people, a good half of whom are in Germany. This industry can make a decisive contribution to the success of the energy transition. However, this will only be possible if core competencies and employment in development and production in Germany are secured and further developed,” said Wolfgang Lemb, executive board member of IG Metall, at a joint conference of the BDH and IG Metall with works council members and company representatives on Wednesday in Berlin.

BDH and IG Metall emphasized that the building sector accounts for about 40 percent of Germany’s final energy consumption, with a large portion of that used for heating and cooling buildings. At the same time, Germany’s heating systems are dramatically outdated; about 70 percent of the systems do not meet the state of the art. Only about 18 percent of the systems use renewable energy.

To unlock the potential of the heating market, BDH and IG Metall are calling for a long-term and reliable strategy for the transformation of the heating market. This strategy must be technology-neutral and consistently geared toward_{reducing CO2} emissions. Current subsidy programs, such as the Market Incentive Program of the Federal Office for Economic Affairs and Export Control and funding through the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, should be maintained but significantly streamlined. The Building Energy Act—which consolidates the Energy Saving Ordinance and the Renewable Energy Heat Act—must be implemented as quickly as possible and provided with adequate funding.

According to the BDH and IG Metall, the model of tax incentives for energy-efficient retrofits is particularly well-suited_to clearing the backlog of retrofits and_{reducing CO₂} in the short term. In this regard, the two organizations support the option agreed upon in the coalition agreement to choose between a grant and a tax reduction, which can contribute to social balance. The BDH and IG Metall view the proposal—put forward by, among others, the Federation of German Industries, the German Trade Union Federation, and the German Energy Agency—to allow 30 percent of the investment amount in energy efficiency improvements to be deducted from tax liability over three years as a sensible approach to tax incentives. The program should be designed to run for 10 years. “The technical solutions for implementing the heating transition are all in place. It is important that the new federal government now sets the right political course,” said BDH President Manfred Greis on Wednesday in Berlin.

Furthermore, the BDH and IG Metall are calling for the determined expansion of renewable electricity generation. Within the framework of sector coupling, electricity can then be used to a greater extent in the heating market. Due to the volatility of electricity from renewable energy sources, storage concepts—particularly those based on power-to-gas and power-to-liquid for centralized solutions—must also be further developed.