Austria wants to ban coal and oil stoves from next year. And the gas?
The Austrian government wants to ban the use of new fossil fuel stoves starting next year and to replace the old oil and coal stoves with climate-friendly options by 2025, Euractiv reports.
Austria, like other EU countries, aims to reduce its dependence on Russian gas as soon as possible. According to the government, the abandonment of Russian gas should occur at the same time as the adoption of renewable heating options, at any cost.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Austria received about 80% of the natural gas it consumed from Russia. By August, this heavy reliance on Russian gas flows had dropped to below 50 percent, the government said.
The ban on installing new fossil fuel boilers, however, would require the approval of at least two-thirds of the Austrian Parliament, as, by limiting personal freedoms, it would be a constitutional change. A majority not easy to find even in view of the growth of the opposition party FPO, strongly opposed to these measures.
“The Russian war of aggression against Ukraine has shown how vulnerable our energy supply is. The answer can only be 'get rid of Russian gas', ”Austrian Minister of Energy and Climate Leonore Gewessler said Wednesday.
With the Renewable Energy Act (EWG), Austria is taking another big step in this direction, added Gewessler.
According to the new law, starting from 2023 it will no longer be possible to install gas stoves in new buildings, the minister said, adding that by 2040 Austria will convert all stoves in the country into climate-friendly alternatives, eliminating boilers to gas and oil and switching to the use of heat pumps, district heating or pellets.
For the renewal program, Austria has allocated 2 billion euros. The Renewable Heat Sources Act (Erneuerbaren-Wärme-Gesetz, EWG) requires fossil fuel heating such as coal, oil and gas to be phased out in Austria by 2040.
Presenting the initial draft of the bill, Minister Gewessler said earlier this year that heating currently accounts for around a quarter of gas consumption in Austria. How one can think of replacing all these sources with electricity, in the moment in which this too is produced by gas in a relevant part, remains a mystery. As well as the replacement with pellet stoves, when there is no certainty that this material will be available, even in the future, at affordable prices. Austria throws itself into a gamble by forcing the times in the midst of an energy crisis. Next winter, in the midst of the bans, we will see what the consequences will be.
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The article Austria wants to ban coal and oil stoves from next year. And the gas? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/laustria-vuole-vietare-le-stufe-a-carbone-e-petrolio-dal-prossimo-anno-e-il-gas/ on Fri, 04 Nov 2022 07:56:47 +0000.