How Not to Reduce Carbon Dioxide Emissions: An Unbalanced Focus on Energy Efficiency in Germany’s Building Rehabilitation Policies

Ray Galvin ()
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Ray Galvin: Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership, University of Cambridge, 1 Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 1GG, UK

Energies, 2024, vol. 17, issue 17, 1-20

Abstract: Germany needs to reduce CO 2 emissions from space heating in its old buildings to net zero by 2045 to fulfil its climate goals. However, direct CO 2 reduction measures in existing buildings receive relatively little subsidy support from the federal government’s German Development Bank, compared to generous subsidies for energy efficiency measures. This interdisciplinary paper evaluates this phenomenon by comparing costs and CO 2 abatement effects of ever higher energy efficiency measures, alongside the costs of direct CO 2 reduction through heat pumps and onsite photovoltaics. It uses a set of carefully selected reports on the costs and benefits of renovation to a range of energy efficiency standards in three common types of multi-apartment buildings in Germany, updating these for 2024 construction, energy, and finance costs. The cost of the CO 2 saved is extremely high with energy efficiency measures and absurdly high with the highest energy efficiency standards, up to 20 times the cost of CO 2 abatement through other means, such as offsite renewables. This reduces markedly with onsite CO 2 reduction measures. This paper sets this analysis in the context of asking what social, cultural, and discursive factors extol energy efficiency so highly that policy tends to thwart its own stated goal of deeply reducing CO 2 emissions.

Keywords: energy efficiency discourse; building rehabilitation; CO 2 emission reduction; misguided subsidies (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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