Germany: Merz coalition's heating-law rollback takes effect

From 1 August, the Building Modernisation Act restores "technology freedom" in heating — property owners choose their own heating technology, unwinding the prescriptive heat-pump mandates of the previous government's Heizungsgesetz. Also in force: a right to all-day childcare for first-graders and mandatory labelling of AI-generated content.

Germany is running the experiment the UK keeps debating: replacing appliance mandates with technology-neutral decarbonisation — directly applicable to the UK boiler phase-out and Future Homes Standard rows.