According to information from the AFP news agency, the government has agreed on key points for the planned sharing of CO2 costs for heating between tenants and landlords. According to the agreement, a seven-stage model is planned - the tenants' share will depend on the energy status of the building. The less energy it consumes, the higher the tenant's share. The Funke Media Group newspapers had first reported on the plan.

According to AFP information, the CO2 balance in the graduated model is given as kilograms per square meter per year. If these emissions are less than five kilograms (lowest level), tenants must pay the entire CO2 costs for heating. If the emissions are more than 45 kilograms, for example in poorly insulated and poorly renovated buildings, they only have to pay ten percent of the CO2 costs.

The phased model applies to residential buildings. For non-residential buildings such as offices or shopping centers, there is still no agreement, AFP has learned. Here, apparently, the data situation is not as complete as for residential buildings.

Currently, the energy certificate classifies buildings into nine efficiency classes ranging from A+ (energy consumption of less than 25 kilowatt hours per square meter per year) to H (more than 250). On average, the final energy consumption for space heating per square meter in Germany is around 130 kilowatt hours. Depending on the energy source, this results in CO2 emissions of 26 to 33 kilograms per square meter per year. Calculated as a rule of thumb, the new regulation is, therefore, more likely to place a financial burden on landlords and encourage them to invest in the refurbishment of their buildings - in line with the Fuel Emissions Trading Act, on which the CO2 price is based.

Fair sharing according to coalition agreement

In the last legislative period, a burden-sharing scheme between tenants and landlords was vetoed by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. The German Energy Agency (Dena) and the Forum for an Ecological-Social Market Economy had also proposed the graduated model now planned.

In the coalition agreement, the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP had decided that a "fair division of the CO2 price to be paid in addition to heating costs between landlords on the one hand and tenants on the other" should be achieved. To this end, a graduated model based on building energy classes was planned for June 1, 2022. Should this not succeed in terms of time, the increased costs would be divided in half by the CO2 price, according to the coalition agreement. According to AFP, the draft bill on the phased model is due to go to cabinet on March 16.

Increase funding for climate-friendly construction and refurbishment

Meanwhile, the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag is planning a hearing on the funding freeze for KfW programs for energy-efficient new buildings and renovations. A motion to this effect is on the agenda today in the Committee for Climate Protection and Energy. The aim is to obtain a resolution in the Bundestag to reverse the funding freeze of January 24. With the end of funding in its current form, the goal of building 400,000 homes a year has become a distant prospect, said Andreas Mattner, president of the Central Real Estate Committee.

Housing companies are now demanding compensation. Due to the back and forth, the construction of more than 2,000 affordable apartments is threatened among the members of the Association of North German Housing Companies, said a spokesman on Monday. The enterprises would have lost approximately 52 million euro at promotion subsidies, which had been planned for far progressed projects. The association had suggested to the companies to sue for damages. The Bavarian housing industry association VdW and the Federal Association of Free Real Estate and Housing Companies expressed similar sentiments.

The Federal association of German housing and real estate enterprises (GdW) mentioned the number of nearly 150,000 dwellings, which cannot be built alone with the socially oriented housing enterprises as planned, on weekend. The real estate expert Harald Simons assumes about 50,000 affected apartments.The German Tenants' Association expressed alarm. Many construction projects are dependent on planning security and funding, it said on Monday. "That's why the German government must now quickly do its homework and significantly increase both the funds for climate-friendly construction and renovation through the KfW and the promotion of social housing construction and make them long-term."

Image by Afif Kusuma