Federal Environment Minister Steffi Lemke sees communication mistakes on the part of her Greens in climate protection policy. In response to a question about her party's decline in the polls, she told Bild am Sonntag: "We have been experiencing recurring drought summers since 2018 at the latest. We are at the point where we need to act. And now we are feeling the climate protection measures in our everyday lives. This increases concerns about these changes, which is quite normal."

At the same time, she acknowledged that this was also the phase "where we as Greens did not immediately strike the right note, should have explained more and better".

Oil and gas are becoming more expensive

With regard to the criticism of the plans for the gradual replacement of heating systems, the minister stressed: "No one will be forced to tear out their heating system now. Only when a new heating system is due anyway does the law take effect." And the state will generously support this replacement of the heating systems. In the medium and long term, a heat pump is cheaper than a gas heating system. "Many people still can't imagine how expensive oil and gas will be." At the same time, electricity will become cheaper with the expansion of wind and solar.

According to the draft law passed by the Federal Cabinet, 2024 percent of every newly installed heating system is to be powered by renewable energies from 65 onwards. The law is intended to herald the farewell to gas and oil heating systems in the interests of climate protection.

"We are currently in a phase where we have to leave the old, but the new is far from convincing everyone. We have to cross this threshold," said Lemke. "What is no longer possible is to claim that we still have many years to go, as Friedrich Merz does."

CDU leader Merz had said that he expressly did not share the argument that time was running out in which climate protection measures could still have the necessary success. "It's not like the world will end tomorrow. If we set the right course in the next ten years, we will be on the right track."