In accordance with the Federal Climate Protection Act (KSG § 8 para. 2), the Expert Council on Climate Issues has reviewed the assumptions of the Immediate Action Program of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWi) and the Federal Ministry of the Interior, for Construction and Home Affairs (BMI) for the building sector and submitted its corresponding “Report on the Immediate Action Program 2020 for the Building Sector” to the Federal Government. The submission of the “Immediate Action Program 2020” by the two ministries became necessary under the Federal Climate Protection Act (Section 8 (1)) because, according to the previous year’s estimate of 2020 greenhouse gas emissions by the Federal Environment Agency dated March 15, 2021, the building sector exceeded its 2020 sector target by 2 Mt CO2 e . The Immediate Action Program 2020 under review envisages securing additional funding of €5.8 billion for the “Federal Support for Efficient Buildings (BEG)” in 2021.
Overall, the program appears effective according to the experts’ assessment, but does not demonstrate the achievement of the climate targets of the building sector by 2030. The review of the assumptions by the Expert Council on Climate Issues has shown that the documents submitted by BMWi and BMI and the calculations of the expert commissioned by the ministries do not allow for a methodologically consistent, isolated quantification of the impact of the Immediate Action Program 2020 submitted by the ministries.
EWI Director Prof. Dr. Marc Oliver Bettzüge is part of the five-member panel. “Our report raises important questions for the immediate action program for the building sector submitted by the relevant ministries,” he comments on the Expert Council’s report. Moreover, in the first-time involvement with such an emergency program and its expert impact analysis, it had become clear that the KSG still left room for interpretation with regard to the evaluation criteria to be applied. The Council of Experts therefore recommends a corresponding specification.
Detailed information on the new report of the Expert Council on Climate Issues can be found on its website.
