Considering environmental aspects of subsidies - sector study housing / Beruecksichtigung von Umweltgesichtspunkten bei Subventionen - Sektorstudie Wohnungsbau

This study is linked to another study which took stock of German subsidy policy from an environmental point of view (Sprenger and Rave, 2003). However, subsidies are discussed with respect to sector-specific peculiarities of housing in this report. Due to the fact that the housing sector receives a considerable amount of subsidies on the one hand and influences the state of the environment on the other hand (especially due to land use, high energy and resource consumption, waste) this study aims to develop reform option for a subsidy policy which is committed to sustainable development. First of all the ecological impacts of housing and the subsidy intensity of the housing sector are examined more closely. Then we look at some goals of housing policy and contrast them with goals of environmental policy. Some of the subsidies are singled out to determine their potential environmental impact. For example, it can be shown that the home-owner support scheme (Eigenheimzulage) promotes new construction activites in the country side and contributes to urban sprawl. (Other negative environmental side effects occur in social housing schemes and due to tax subsidies). With respect to the home-owner support scheme we propose to lower the basic support (Grundzulage) in a multi-tier system and to introduce an ecological component. This component is based on criteria which can be administered easily (like kind of land used, amount of land designed for construction or housing, number of persons in household). Overall a policy package is proposed which contributes to a considerable reduction of CO_2-emissions and land use. (orig.) / SIGLE / Available from TIB Hannover: RN 8422(2003,31) / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische Informationsbibliothek / Bundesministerium fuer Umwelt, Naturschutz und Reaktorsicherheit, Berlin (Germany) / DE / Germany