France ends gas heaters subsidies, boosts heat pumps in bid to cut Russia reliance

France will end government subsidies for the installation of new residential gas heaters and boost support for renewable energy heating in a bid to further reduce reliance on Russian fossil fuel exports, the environment minister said on Wednesday. As part of a government “resilience plan” aimed at helping households and companies cope with the economic fallout of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, France wants to end its imports of Russian gas and oil by 2027. To reduce gas demand, France will reform its “MaPrimeRenov” subsidy scheme to accelerate the replacement of fossil fuel-fired heaters with renewable heating such as heat pumps and biomass heaters, including hybrid systems.