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New research concludes that Member states should capitalise on their renovation strategies to achieve national energy efficiency targets
A report assessing the updated national renovation strategies of Bulgaria, Croatia, Germany, Romania and Slovenia is published today by the H2020 project EmBuild, finding that the objectives of Article 4 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, in force since 2012, are still only partially met in these five countries. The report states that the opportunity to deliver an array of benefits through renovating the building stock is being missed.
The development and implementation of national renovation strategies by EU Member States is required by the EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED, 2012/27/EU). Article 4 of the Directive asked national governments to present a first version of their renovation strategy to the European Commission in April 2014, to be updated every three years.
This new report assesses the compliance of the five countries’ updated renovation strategies with the EED. The review also investigates approaches to tackling barriers to renovation of public buildings, support for municipalities, and other relevant areas including funding and financing support, and engagement with stakeholders.
The analysis shows that there is a mixed picture in terms of compliance across the five strategies. The strategies have improved in some areas and new measures have been put in place: Romania has introduced mandatory local energy planning for towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants; Germany introduced tailored Renovation Roadmaps; Croatia strengthened the administrative capacity to better tackle renovation of multi-family buildings; Slovenia introduced the Local Energy Concept tool; Bulgaria stated the intention to shift from 100% grants to fund renovation of residential buildings.
However, little has been done to significantly improve the 2014 strategies and consequently increase rate and quality of renovation at a pace that would significantly contribute to the achievement of the EU 2030 targets and the Paris commitment. Of most concern is the lack of a long-term strategic vision and a roadmap of policies and measures to mobilise investment in the renovation of the national building stocks remains a concern. The renovation of public buildings, as required by the Efficiency Directive remains a significant challenge and is only addressed to a very limited extent.
The analysis concludes that developing a renovation strategy is still not regarded by all Governments as a strategic exercise and that building renovation remains a low policy priority in all countries. There is clearly a missed opportunity as building renovation has the potential to generate direct benefits for residents, businesses and public sector bodies in the form of lower energy bills, better comfort, reduced fuel poverty and increased productivity. Equally, societal benefits such as higher energy security, improved air quality and economic stimulus are not realised.
The recently revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (2018/844/EU) reconfirms the strategic value of long-term renovation strategies and asks Member States to define a roadmap with measurable progress indicators, including milestones for 2030 and 2040, aiming at achieving a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.
About the project
EmBuild - Empower public authorities to establish a long-term strategy for mobilizing investment in the energy efficient renovation of the building stock - is a project financed under the Horizon2020 Programme of the European Union and explores the modalities of investment in energy efficiency in public buildings with a special emphasis on the local level. Its main objective was to empower public authorities at local, regional and national level to formulate renovation strategies for the building sector that foster deep renovation and facilitate the acceleration of the renovation rate.