Climate-friendly heating law dropped in Germany

Written by journalist Danylo Aleksandrov

A draft law that required from households installation of environment-friendly alternatives to boilers, was rejected by the Cabinet.

A wave of critique was directed again the Buildings Energy Act (or Heating Act), as some thought that if it would be adopted, households would have to pay thousands of euros to change boilers running on fossil fuels to alternative systems.

On May 13th a change to the law was announced after the meeting of the cabinet by Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche, the most recent one. Its goal was provide more freedom for the homeowners on one side and to give construction companies’ investment security. She also said that a requirement for new homes to be powered by renewable energy by at least 65% will be canceled. Same would go for forced replacement of heating systems. Another cancellation concerns bans on new heating systems that run on oil or gas that were put in place in 2024.

This happens at the moment when traditional gas boilers were becoming to be sold less than heat pumps in Germany, as people tried to reduce their reliance on gas, prices on which have become chaotic since the start of war in Iran. In 2025, 48% of all heating systems sold in the country were heat pumps. In the first quarter of 2026 this number increased by 34% compared to this period last year.

The opponents of this decision state that these new measures would only lead to more expensive and unsystematic future transition that, in their opinion, will happen. Katherina Droege, who is parliamentary leader of the Greens’ party, called this “a complete abandonment of Germany’s climate targets”.

This rollback on environmental reforms is seen by many as an attempt by coalition government of Friedrich Merz to stop the crumbling approval rates caused by this and other reforms, such as those concerning taxes, welfare and pensions.