美国国家公共电台 NPR--German homeowners worry about the cost of meeting the country's climate targets

German homeowners worry about the cost of meeting the country's climate targets

Transcript¹

Germany plans to ban gas and oil boilers³ in all new buildings starting next year to reduce its carbon footprint. Homeowners are concerned that the new rules will bankrupt them.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

OK. Imagine it's winter, and your home's heating system breaks down. I mean, you'd typically have it fixed⁴, right? But if you live in Germany, new rules being debated in parliament this week could force you to replace your old boiler² with a new, expensive heat pump.

As NPR's Rob Schmitz reports, German homeowners are scared of the crippling cost of meeting their country's climate targets.

ROB SCHMITZ, BYLINE⁵: The green future of German heating is a white box the size of your refrigerator. It also happens to use the same technology as your refrigerator, but in reverse.

WOLFGANG GRUNDINGER: It takes the temperature from the food inside the fridge and then kind of blows it out. And a heat pump is just the other way around.

SCHMITZ: Wolfgang Grundinger heads the startup Enpal, which sells heat pumps. He stands in front of two of them propped⁶ up near a foosball table inside the company's buzzing Berlin office. The cost of electricity needed to power a heat pump is a third cheaper than natural gas. The savings⁷ are even better for those who run heat pumps from solar panels.

GRUNDINGER: People realize that gas is super expensive - that we are dependent on foreign countries when it comes to gas. And they can just make their electricity on their own rooftop and have their heat pump at home.

SCHMITZ: Germany's Green Party is overseeing a bill that aims to do away with the country's gas and oil heating infrastructure⁸ for good. An early version of the bill leaked to German media revealed the plan would be to, starting next year, require all new buildings in Germany to install heating systems that use at least 65% renewable energy. The heat pump is currently one of the only ways to meet this goal. Early bill language also mandated⁹ that any building in Germany, including family homes whose heating systems had broken down, would also be required to meet this goal. It was this part of the proposed bill that sent German homeowners into a frenzy¹⁰.

KAI WARNECKE: This law will instantly reduce the value of the building stock in Germany in a very dramatic way.

SCHMITZ: Kai Warnecke is the president of Haus Und Grund, an association that represents nearly a million private homeowners and landlords in Germany.

WARNECKE: The estimation for a standard one-family house which needs to be redone and have a heat pump installed is around 100- and 150,000 euro per one-family home. And therefore, the calculated outcome for the whole German building stock is, on a conservative level, 1 trillion euro.

SCHMITZ: That is equal to more than a quarter of Germany's GDP last year. Warnecke says this bill, should it become law, would bankrupt middle-class homeowners and tank the country's economy.

But this week, as Germany's parliament prepared to debate the bill, German media reported that new language in it may water it down, only requiring new buildings to conform to the new climate rules and giving homeowners more time to comply. That'll be a relief to German homeowners. But Andree Boehling, an energy expert at Greenpeace, says the climate cannot wait.

ANDREE BOEHLING: (Speaking German).

SCHMITZ: Boehling says the revised bill will result in Germany failing to hit its 2030 climate protection targets and that it's up to Parliament to ensure it's tightened¹¹ up with stricter measures.

Outside of Berlin's parliament building, Tanja Baer, a 44-year-old chemistry teacher visiting from the city of Mainz, says she's watching all of this closely.

TANJA BAER: (Speaking German).

SCHMITZ: Baer says she's all for climate protection, but she says the Green Party wants to do this too quickly. Baer and her husband have four children, and they're looking to buy a new house. She says she can only afford an older home with a gas or oil boiler, and she says there's no way she can afford replacing that with a new heat pump, even with subsidies¹² the Green Party's promising¹³. Baer says she's always voted for the Greens, but she doesn't plan on doing that in the next election. Germany's Parliament plans to debate the new boiler ban bill in the coming days.

Rob Schmitz, NPR News, Berlin.

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1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 boiler   

n.锅炉；煮器(壶，锅等)

参考例句：

• That boiler will not hold up under pressure.那种锅炉受不住压力。
• This new boiler generates more heat than the old one.这个新锅炉产生的热量比旧锅炉多。

3 boilers   

锅炉，烧水器，水壶( boiler的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Even then the boilers often burst or came apart at the seams. 甚至那时的锅炉也经常从焊接处爆炸或裂开。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• The clean coal is sent to a crusher and the boilers. 干净的煤送入破碎机和锅炉。

4 fixed   

adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的

参考例句：

• Have you two fixed on a date for the wedding yet?你们俩选定婚期了吗？
• Once the aim is fixed,we should not change it arbitrarily.目标一旦确定，我们就不应该随意改变。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 propped   

支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
• This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。

7 savings   

n.存款，储蓄

参考例句：

• I can't afford the vacation,for it would eat up my savings.我度不起假，那样会把我的积蓄用光的。
• By this time he had used up all his savings.到这时，他的存款已全部用完。

8 infrastructure   

n.下部构造，下部组织，基础结构，基础设施

参考例句：

• We should step up the development of infrastructure for research.加强科学基础设施建设。
• We should strengthen cultural infrastructure and boost various types of popular culture.加强文化基础设施建设，发展各类群众文化。

9 mandated   

adj. 委托统治的

参考例句：

• Mandated desegregation of public schools. 命令解除公立学校中的种族隔离
• Britain was mandated to govern the former colony of German East Africa. 英国受权代管德国在东非的前殖民地。

10 frenzy   

n.疯狂，狂热，极度的激动

参考例句：

• He was able to work the young students up into a frenzy.他能激起青年学生的狂热。
• They were singing in a frenzy of joy.他们欣喜若狂地高声歌唱。

11 tightened   

收紧( tighten的过去式和过去分词 )； （使）变紧； （使）绷紧； 加紧

参考例句：

• The rope holding the boat suddenly tightened and broke. 系船的绳子突然绷断了。
• His index finger tightened on the trigger but then relaxed again. 他的食指扣住扳机，然后又松开了。

12 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

13 promising   

adj.有希望的，有前途的

参考例句：

• The results of the experiments are very promising.实验的结果充满了希望。
• We're trying to bring along one or two promising young swimmers.我们正设法培养出一两名有前途的年轻游泳选手。