Large sections of the German business community want ambitious climate protection in the coalition agreement
Published
A broad alliance of more than 50 large and medium-sized companies and business associations is calling on the parties in the exploratory talks to make climate protection the central task of the future German government.
Subscribers to the declaration include major companies active in Germany, larger SMEs and associations from a wide range of sectors. They include 6 DAX 30 companies and well-known names such as Aldi Süd, Deutsche Börse, Deutsche Telekom, Hochtief, Nestlé, SAP and many more. Energy-intensive industrial companies and coal-fired power plant operators are also supporting the appeal, including Siemens, EnBW, E.ON and Papier- und Kartonfabrik Varel. Many of the subscribing companies are not direct winners of decarbonisation or the energy transition. However, the subscribers promise to play their part in climate protection. Coordinators of the declaration are the business associations Stiftung 2° and B.A.U.M. as well as the development and environmental organisation Germanwatch.
7/2010: Architecture: Of curtains and other enemies. After decades of estrangement, the architects and the building's residents become closer again. From Gerhard Matzig www.sueddeutsche.de/...
7/2010: Expansion mania. On the renewed topicality of the large scale in architecture and urban planning. From Robert Kaltenbrunner
6/2010: Storming the ecological Bastille: The oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has several truths. There is the sloppiness and indifference of the BP company. But there is also the failure of the government watchdogs. From Ulrich Beck
3/2010: Ruhr region plans eco-city for 50,000 people
When the Capital of Culture comes to an end at the end of 2010, the Ruhr region is planning a new major project with nationwide appeal: in the centre of the former coalfield, a city with a population of 50,000 is to be converted into an eco-city using all the latest technology. www.co2-handel.de/article306_13816.html
1/2010: 28th solar settlement in NRWNorth Rhine-Westphalia's newest solar housing estate with almost 140 flats was inaugurated in Schwerte at the end of August 2009. In this second solar housing estate of the Gemeinnützige Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft Schwerte eG (GWG), CO2 emissions for heating and hot water can be reduced by around 75 %. www.energieagentur.nrw.de/solarsiedlungen
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) is expanding its funding for fuel cell heating systems. With immediate effect, you can apply to KfW for attractive subsidies for the installation of fuel cell heating systems in both all residential and non-residential buildings. Private individuals, freelancers, small and medium-sized enterprises (including contractors) as well as municipal and non-profit organisations are eligible to apply.
The subsidy is available for fuel cell heating systems with an electrical output of up to 5 kW that are installed either as part of a refurbishment or a new build. Depending on the electrical output, a subsidy of up to 28,200 euros per installed fuel cell is possible.
The aim of extending the funding is to establish the pioneering fuel cell technology for supplying electricity and heat in buildings on a broad market. Fuel cell heating systems are significantly more efficient than conventional combined heat and power systems. The natural gas or biogas used is utilised much more efficiently, which also leads to lower CO2 emissions.
Grant funding for fuel cell heating systems is part of the German government's "Energy Efficiency Incentive Programme". It supplements the existing KfW programmes for energy-efficient construction and renovation. Since the programme was launched in August 2016, the installation of over 900 fuel cell heating systems, primarily in detached and semi-detached houses, has been supported with grants of around 13 million euros.
Berlin, 9 January 2020 - One of the Herculean tasks in achieving the climate targets is to radically reduce CO2 emissions from the heating supply. A research group led by the Institute for Ecological Economy Research (IÖW) is showing how cities can move away from coal, oil and gas in a socially responsible way. The "Urban Heat Transition" project analysed possible contributions from renewable energies and local heat sources in Berlin's urban districts. "Waste heat from businesses, heat from waste water or geothermal energy have hardly been utilised to date. The key to such environmentally friendly heat are neighbourhood concepts and heating networks," says project manager Bernd Hirschl from the IÖW. "An important prerequisite is a more efficient building stock. Only if the heat demand is significantly reduced can environmentally friendly heat sources be utilised efficiently."
In the three-year project, the project team from the IÖW, the University of Bremen and the Technical University of Berlin worked together with the Berlin Senate Department for the Environment, Transport and Climate Protection with funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research to develop local heating concepts for three Berlin neighbourhoods. At the end of 2019, they discussed their results with the heating industry in Berlin, and the documentation of the conference is now available online at www.urbane-waermewende.de.
Developing nuclei for the heat transition
"Previous neighbourhood concepts were often too complex, had too many different stakeholders and often ended up in a drawer. That's why we recommend a nucleus approach," says Elisa Dunkelberg from the IÖW. These could be public buildings, new construction projects, commercial buildings or housing associations and co-operatives.
The researchers show what a neighbourhood concept can look like for an old building district in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf: Firstly, the heat demand must be reduced through energy-efficient refurbishment. The heat can be generated using a wastewater heat pump, which is partly powered by solar electricity generated on site, in combination with combined heat and power generation. "Particularly in the case of public buildings, which have a pioneering role - enshrined in law in Berlin - it should always be checked in the case of refurbishment and new buildings whether they are suitable as a nucleus for a neighbourhood concept and the co-supply of surrounding buildings," emphasises Dunkelberg.
Climate-neutral district heating: utilising waste heat and renewables
District heating plays a major role in urban areas. "To become climate-neutral, it is important to integrate more local heat sources from wastewater, river water and geothermal energy as well as waste heat into district heating," says Hirschl, adding that attention must also be paid to the resilience of the heat generation system. A joint case study with the Neukölln district heating plant shows that it is possible to utilise local heat sources. But it needs to be tested technically and requires supporting financial measures. The next steps should now be test drilling for deep geothermal energy, for example, as well as pilot plants that use large heat pumps to provide wastewater or river water heat for district heating. Strategies for funding and risk protection are needed for investment in these technologies, some of which are untested and highly expensive.
Heat transition requires municipal strategic heat planning - and social compatibility
"Municipal heat planning, which has long been standard practice in pioneering countries such as Denmark and in other federal states and municipalities for some time, helps to tap into the identified potential," emphasises Hirschl. The basis for this is a heat register that visualises heat sources such as waste water and commercial waste heat. This can also be used to identify neighbourhoods for cross-building concepts. With sector coupling, it is also important that local authorities and cities plan across infrastructures. Instruments such as urban land-use planning and urban development contracts must be geared towards climate neutrality.
Low refurbishment rates in recent years show that purely incentive-based measures are not enough to ensure energy modernisation. The researchers therefore recommend implementing the regulations more strongly and developing a step-by-step plan to guide the building stock towards climate neutrality. At the same time, subsidies must be increased and conditions for passing on rent must be made more socially acceptable. A step-by-step plan under the conditions of a rent cap must be designed in such a way that energy modernisation is economically reasonable for both landlords and tenants.
Federal Ministry of Education and Research funds "Urban Heat Transition" project for another two years
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is funding the project in a new partner constellation for a further two years in order to test solution strategies for the central obstacles to implementation and to anchor the research results in municipal heat planning. In addition to the IÖW, the partners are Berliner Wasserbetriebe and the law firm Becker Büttner Held.
We use cookies to optimize our website and services.
Functional
Always active
Technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a particular service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that have not been requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access, which is solely for statistical purposes.Technical storage or access used solely for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary consent from your Internet service provider, or additional records from third parties, information stored or accessed for this purpose cannot generally be used alone to identify you.
Marketing
Technical storage or access is necessary to create user profiles, to send advertising or to track the user on a website or across multiple websites for similar marketing purposes.
