Climate Talk

Germany and heat pumps: we made a big mess of a good idea

In 2023 Germany had the big fight about the heating law. The newspapers called it the 'heating hammer'. Many people were afraid they must throw out their gas boiler tomorrow. This was not true, but the fear stayed.

Result: many people bought new gas boilers quickly before the rules. Then sales of heat pumps went down for a while.

I think the idea was right. The communication was very bad. Lesson for other countries: explain first, then law.