EuroACE key messages to Energy Ministers meeting informally in Dublin on 24th April:

An ambitious 2030 climate and energy policy is necessary in order to provide policy predictability to businesses and to stimulate investor confidence. A binding energy efficiency target is essential and a target for energy efficiency improvements to buildings must be a key element of the target given it is the end-use sector with the highest savings potential;

Structural barriers to investment in energy efficient renovation must be removed. The Copenhagen Economics Study released in 2012, recommended that Member State governments could address four structural barriers and hence stimulate investments. These relate to changes to rent regulation, redirecting financial subsidies for fossil fuels, improving public accounting and budget management rules and better risk management instruments for investors;

Now is the best time to initiate ambitious energy efficient renovation programmes as interest rates in the EU are at an historical low and there is significant capacity in the labour market as a result of high unemployment.

EuroACE, the European Alliance of Companies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings, was invited to address the closed working session of the Informal Energy Ministers Meetings in Dublin on the 24th April.

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Today the European Commission publishes a Green Paper addressing a 2030 framework for climate and energy policies. Energy efficiency is good for the economy, good for business, good for employment, and good for EU citizens. Therefore, in its response to this stakeholder consultation, EuroACE will underline the importance of setting a complementary set of 3 binding targets, which includes a binding target for energy efficiency.

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A binding and meaningful 2030 target for energy efficiency is an important milestone towards achieving the EU’s ambitions for the creation of a competitive and sustainable low-carbon economy by 2050. Within that framework, a binding sectoral target for buildings, which are responsible for around 40% of energy consumption in the EU, is essential.

Given the importance of ensuring that there is a long-term, stable policy framework that will build investor confidence in the subject of highly ambitious energy efficiency for buildings and thus encourage a transformation in the construction sector, EuroACE is calling for a binding EU energy efficiency target for 2030 as a key element of the Post-2020 policy debate.

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