Issue Stalled heat transition

Summary

The report finds that the heat transition is struggling to get off the ground in both industry and the built environment. Now that the easy gains of the energy transition have been made, this area has entered an uncertain phase. Geothermal energy, a key option for the heat transition, is developing more slowly than hoped because of uncertainty about underground risks and high upfront costs. Making homes more sustainable is progressing but still falls short of the targets. The report holds that such uncertainty slows the overall pace of the transition. It also explains that the Netherlands still relies heavily on fossil fuels in sectors including heating, and that rising transition costs and shortages of technical staff make implementation harder.