Crunch time for EU buildings directive negotiations

Energy Performance of Buildings Directive: this is Europe’s chance for an all-in-one tool to cut energy bills and GHG emissions?

There aren’t many pieces of EU legislation with a nerdier name than the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. It’s a crucial one, however: buildings soak up over a third of the EU’s energy consumption and emit an equal proportion of its GHG emissions.??

Depending on which statistic you look at, anywhere between 50 million and 100 million people live in energy poverty and can’t afford to adequately heat or cool their homes.

Better buildings are also a core part of the economy – as the French say, when the building sector is ok, everything’s ok.??

On Thursday, negotiators from the European Parliament, Council and Commission are meeting in a ‘trilogue’ session to thrash out an agreement on the central part of the directive – so-called ‘minimum energy performance standards’ (MEPS).??

The idea is pretty simple: the least energy efficient residential, commercial and public buildings – the ones that are the most expensive to heat – should be renovated by the mid-2030s.??

But finding a deal is hard. It comes down to two things: how do you determine which buildings will be covered by MEPS, and how many buildings need to be renovated to be in line with the EU’s climate and energy goals??

There is fierce competition on this design point. The Parliament and Commission wanted to harmonise the way member states describe their building stock. The idea was that the bottom 15 percent in every country would be labelled G class, the next 15 percent F class, and so on. Then you could have agreed legislation saying that the Fs and Gs should be made more efficient by the mid-2030s.??

The Council, meanwhile, wanted the residential building stock in each country to achieve a D-level average energy performance, but without harmonising energy classes (yes, it’s nerdy). But the Council belatedly realised this would have meant hugely ambitious renovation goals in countries like Germany and Italy, and far too little in other countries. At the same time the Council refuses to go with the Parliament and Commission thinking...??

So it’s been a stalemate situation for weeks, which is only now beginning to open up. Countries are piling on pressure to go with a goal to renovate a commonly agreed number of buildings, but without a reference to energy classes. In return, the Parliament can ask for a decent level of ambition - getting?enough?buildings renovated, in other words.?

All this will be negotiated in the trilogue on Thursday. It won’t be the final negotiating session: talks will probably stretch out to December (when winter weather will be a reminder of the need to act). One thing is for sure: there will be an agreement to introduce minimum energy performance standards. Whether they will be ambitious enough will be decided over the next couple of months.??

Feel free to share your thoughts and comments below. ?

#ROCKWOOL #EPBD #EUGreenDeal #energyefficiency?

?? Efficient Buildings Europe