One year of remunicipalisation of Berlin's district heating: Alliance criticizes lack of transparency and polluting wood burning

One year of remunicipalisation of Berlin's district heating: Alliance criticizes lack of transparency and polluting wood burning

Berlin, 30.04.: On the first anniversary of the remunicipalisation of BEW Berlin's energy and heat on 3 May, 9 climate and environmental protection associations, which have fought for this repurchase for a long time, congratulate. At the same time, they – the Berliner Energietisch, Biofuelwatch, BürgerBegehren Klimaschutz, BUND Berlin, Greenpeace Berlin, NABU, PowerShift, ROBIN WOOD and the Bündnis Berlin Erneuerbar – criticise in a joint press release that the hope of a more transparent and clearly oriented company for climate, resource and customer protection associated with the buyback has not yet been fulfilled. They therefore call for BEW to swiftly submit a revised decarbonisation roadmap for its district heating, which really deserves this name. In addition, communication and cooperation with civil society interested in the heat transition must be significantly improved.  

So far, BEW seems to be sticking to Vattenfall's decarbonisation roadmap, despite BEW's Chairman of the Supervisory Board and Economic Senator Franziska Giffey's announcement of a revised roadmap for the beginning of this year. This means that wood burning, which is harmful to the climate and the environment, is still being greatly expanded: A corresponding permit application for the power plant in Reuter-West is expected in a timely manner. The 9 organizations criticize that the public is left in the dark about the underlying plans and the long-term impact on the heating strategy. They call for this to change and for civil society and the public to be involved in drawing up the plan.

Eric Häublein, Bioenergy Officer at NABU-Bundesverband, emphasises: “Without a plan and without any knowledge of the geothermal potential in the city, BEW wants to create facts and invest large sums in two new wood-fired power plants that will damage forests and the climate for decades to come. We call on companies and politicians to suspend power plant planning until geothermal exploration has taken place, the overall plan is in place and civil society and other stakeholders have had sufficient discussion.”

Neelke Wagner, Climate and Resource Justice Officer at PowerShift, says: “So far, BEW is focusing far too much on incineration, whether of hydrogen, biomass or waste. This is not only detrimental to the climate because it will continue to generate large amounts of carbon dioxide, but also to customers who will face exploding heating costs in the face of foreseeable shortages of biomass and hydrogen. Importing these energy sources on a large scale from the Global South would shift the burden of our energy hunger to poorer countries, which is also not a sustainable solution.”

Michael Efler, Co-Managing Director of BürgerBegehren Klimaschutz, explains: “We continue to welcome the re-municipalisation of district heating, but are still dissatisfied with the possibilities of democratic control and public participation. Similar to the municipal utility and the electricity grid, at least civil society should be more involved, e.g. in the decision-making bases and investment amounts for the individual projects. Finally, decarbonising and democratising Berlin's district heating is a mammoth task that requires all support from urban society and does not belong behind closed doors.”

Background:

• Position paper “How do we create climate-friendly district heating in Berlin?” from Berlin Renewable.
• Joint Info Paper of 01/2025: “Plans to expand wood burning for Berlin district heating”.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact:

• Neelke Wagner, Climate and Resource Justice Officer at PowerShift, neelke.wagner@power-shift.de, +49 (0)30 2472 4541
• Adrian Bornmann, Public Relations Officer at PowerShift, adrian.bornmann@power-shift.de, 030-27590497