Most countries and governments today are aware of the impor-tance of an effective environmental policy. Just how climate change will affect the global ecosystem cannot be forecast pre-cisely at present, but the fact that it will have consequences is undisputed.
In order to minimize these consequences, measures to reduce CO2 emissions are essential, both in the generation of energy and in those sectors which consume energy. The latter include private households in addition to industry, traffic and transport, the trades, commerce and the service sector.

Along with modern thermal insulation, more efficient heating systems in buildings and the more widespread use of systems employing renewable energy supplies will help bring about a distinct reduction in the consumption of oil and gas and con-sequently also in emissions.
According to a European Union’s Green Paper, roughly 50 % of the energy used for hot water and heating systems in buildings could be saved in this way, with a corresponding reduction in carbon dioxide emissions. In Germany alone, CO2 emissions could potentially be reduced by around 30 million metric tons per year through the modernization of existing heating systems.

CO2 balance of modern heating systems

The amount of economized carbon dioxide emissions is evident from the CO2 balance of modern heating systems. A modern low-temperature boiler produces roughly 20 % fewer CO2 emissions than a standard boiler built in 1978. Oil and gas-fired condensing boilers as well as electric heat pumps fare even better, reducing pollutant emissions by around 30 % or more than 50 %, respectively.
With a supplementary solar system to produce hot water and support the heating system, condensing boilers similarly reduce CO2 emissions by more than half as compared with an older system.

CO2-neutral energy systems of the future

In addition to the available low-consumption systems based on gas and oil, more and more importance is being attached to the use of renewable energy sources, such as geothermal energy, sunlight and biomass. Heat pumps, solar systems or log and pellet boilers use these virtually CO2-neutral sources of energy and are not only just as easy to operate, but also just as effective as oil and gas-fired heating systems.
Several renewable energy supplies, such as wood and sunlight, can also be combined when modernizing a heating system. In Germany, 40 % of the new heating systems installed in 2006 operate on renewable energy sources. The figure is around 14 % for the whole of Europe including Germany.

In view of the low-consumption technologies available, however, it is neither necessary in the medium term nor economically possible at present to stop using fossil fuels in the form of natural gas and crude oil in a manner ensuring nationwide or Europe-wide coverage. Moreover, attractive prospects for oil and gas-fired heating systems are being created by the efforts of the oil and gas industry to reduce the demand for fossil fuels by increasing the share of organic fuel sources in their products. This would permit a continuous transition from gas and oil to more biogenic and more climate-friendly energy sources, with the immense advantage of permitting continued use of existing know-how and infrastructure in the long term, too.