If the country wants to achieve its climate protection goals, the building stock must be upgraded more quickly.

The state government therefore wants to double the annual renovation rate of residential buildings to two percent by 2025.

The goal sounds sensible, but the state government threatens to stumble on the way there.

There are more than 1.4 million residential buildings in Hessen.

The last time the census was carried out was ten years ago to determine how old these houses are.

The data collected at the time and processed by the State Statistical Office shows that two thirds of the residential buildings in Hesse were built more than 40 years ago.

The statistics also provide information about the type of heating.

This time, the figures from the State Statistical Office are from 2018, but the trend is still correct today: more than half of the apartments in Hesse are heated with gas.

At almost 30 percent there is a heating oil tank in the basement.

The wrong signal

The need for modernization is therefore enormous.

But what is the state government doing?

It discontinues the funding program through which homeowners could apply for grants for renovation.

The program should motivate owners to invest in modernization in order to reduce energy consumption.

Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Die Grünen) has made it clear that efforts to reduce climate-damaging emissions must be tripled in order to still achieve the climate targets for 2030.

It is true that the federal government supports the homeowners with the renovation.

The fact that the state government is canceling its supplementary funding program sends the wrong signal.

The price of CO2 makes heating with oil and gas more and more expensive.

But not every owner can afford a new heating system.

Insulate the roof and facade, replace the heating - that costs a lot of money.

A renovation can quickly run into the thousands.

When the grants decline, many property owners will shy away from making the heavy investments.

The state chairman of Haus & Grund rightly says: Just building up pressure is not enough.

Good bait catches mice.