Hello there,

listeners, and welcome back.

My name is Stephanie Safarian, and you're listening to another Headlines episode.

As a quick reminder on these headlines episodes, we do things differently.

We're covering, in this case today we're covering three

news stories that have something to do with environmental issues and we're

doing it in under 15 minutes. I'm very excited because today we have a theme.

The three news headlines that we're covering today are all centered around the theme of sacrifice. So let's go ahead and get into our first story today.

We're heading to Germany and we're talking about new legislation that is proposed. Key word proposed it has not passed.

This proposed bill would require all new buildings in Germany to have heating systems that use at least 65%

renewable energy. Now what on earth does that mean? That means that there are very few options on the market for new buildings.

Heat pumps being the only one that is readily available.

And this proposed law is not just for new buildings.

It's for everyday homeowners like you and me as well.

If you're a homeowner in Germany and your boiler breaks, like mine did in February of this year by the way.

If this bill passes, it would mean that you, the homeowner, would have to install something that again uses at least 65% renewable energy

aka a heat pump advocates of this proposed bill argue that getting on the clean energy bandwagon in new

buildings in existing homes and apartment buildings and everything in between is

vital in meeting the country's carbon emissions goals.

However, not surprisingly, many German homeowners are not thrilled with the part of this proposed bill that says that if your boiler breaks

You need to replace it with likely a heat pump. Why?

Heat pumps can be quite expensive. Any idea what the price is for a

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