Sustainable Energy Week highlights importance of buildings
19/02/09
EuroACE participated in the 3rd annual European Sustainable Energy Week, hosted by the European Comission in Brussels from 9-13 February 2009. See www.eusew.eu for more information.
Highlights of the week:
Czech Republic Presidency to the EU calls for Member States to adopt recast of the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) "as soon as possible"!
The European Commission's energy efficiency services (DG TREN) held an afternoon session on "Buildings: Flagship on Energy Efficiency (Let's make the new EU legislation deliver)" at which the closing address was given by Mr. Milan Hovorka, Vice Minister of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic.
Minister Hovorka commented that "there is a signifcant potential for cost-effective savings in existing buildings...this recast provides the means to realise these". He also noted that the EPBD, if implemented properly, can substantially contribute to the 20% by 2020 energy efficiency improvement target. He called for vigorous progress to be made with the recasting of the EPBD, to keep the "level of ambition high" and to keep Europe "on the path to sustainable prosperity", despite the present economic difficulties.
Minister Hovorka also called for minimum energy performance standards, particularly for modernising existing buildings and called on Member States to develop national plans for promoting low energy buildings. Minister Hovorka, rightly, highlighted the importance of getting the financial incentives right in order to promote entrepreneurship.
The Czech Presidency to the EU hosted a first discussion with Member State representatives on the EPBD recast proposal on 10 February. EuroACE calls on the Presidency to accelarate discussions at Council level in order to ensure the proposal is adopted as early as possible, as per Minister Hovorka's speech!
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EuroACE senior advisor, Andrew Warren, also took part in the same DG TREN session in a high-level roundtable on realising the EPBD recast, together with the European Parliaments lead rapporteur on the proposal, Ms. Silvia-Adriana Ticau; European Commission Policy Officer, Mr. Martin Elseberger; Director-General For Energy in the Swedish Energy Ministry, Mr. Bo Diczfalusy; and Energy Coordinator of CECODHAS (association on social housing), Ms. Sorcha Edwards.
Mr. Diczfalusy confirmed the intention of the Swedish Presidency to the EU (July to December 2009), to conclude the adoption of the EPBD recast in December 2009. He also confirmed that there are good reasons for adopting the recast now, which include tightening up the definitions and improving the effectiveness of the Energy Performance Certificates.
Ms. Ticau has proposed a set of ambitious amendments to the Commission's proposal. She reiterated the need for public authorities to act as a "front runner" on low energy buildings and the need for binding targets on the percentage of very low energy new buildings. Her approach is to be ambitous but practical at the same time. She is, therefore, also proposing the creation of an energy efficiency and renewable fund, as well as other financial incentives, to support financially the EPBD recast prescriptions.
Andrew Warren set the scene for the EPBD recast by explaining that, while buildings do not cross ov
er borders, their emissions do. Therefore, a concerted action across the entire EU is needed to reduce carbon emissions from buildings. The EPBD is also being reviewed under very different circumstances to when the Directive was initially adopted at the beginning of the decade. It is now widely accepted and verified that improving the energy efficiency of the EU's building stock can greatly contribute to Europe's goals on climate change, energy security and economic growth.
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During the session, DG TREN used the opportunity of a captive audience to announce its new BUILD-UP initiative, which will go live over the coming months. In the words of the Commission, the initiative "aims to promote better and smarter buildings across Europe by gathering building professionals, local authorities and citizens through a newly interactive communication portal. The new portal will inform and update the market about the energy legislation on buildings while taking over the current EPBD information platform. Moreover, it will encourage communications, transfer and promotion of existing information and knowledge, guidelines, tools and best practices for energy saving measures in buildings". The initiative will, eventually, replace the existing EPBD Buildings Platform.
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EuroACE held its own session on Thursday afternoon, entitled "The Role of Buildings in Meeting Europe's 2020 Goals". A number of interesting presentations were made on studies and projects to support greater energy efficiency in buildings:
The second part of the session was devoted to a panel discussion with leading MEPs on the EPBD recast.
EP's rapporteur from the socialist group, Silvia-Adriana Ticau, emphasised that Europe has a unique ten-year window of opportunity, until 2020, to make strong headway in reducing the energy demand of buildings. The rapporteur is keen to see greener buildings across Europe but would like to ensure that they are affordable. She is calling on public authorities to take the lead in implementing cost-optimal recommendations in the Energy Performance Certificates (EPC) related to their buildings. She would like to make the 20% energy efficiency target by 2020 mandatory. The EPBD recast should also be used to improve existing failures in information exchange, expertise levels, and incentive mechanisms at local, regional, national and EU level.
Fiona Hall, who is leading negotiations in the Parliament for the Liberal group, welcomed Ms Ticau's amendments. Ms Hall would also like to introduce provisions for a voluntary EU-level EPC that could be used alongside the national EPCs. This would allow companies to compare their buildings across Europe and plan better for future energy reductions under their corporate social responsibility obligations, for example. Ms. Hall would, furthermore, like to ensure that, when a component in a building is replaced, that its replacement meets minimum energy performance requirements. The opportunity to improve the performance of a building must be taken whenever possible. Ms Hall also intends to table amendments to include specific targets for new net zero energy buildings in Member States, with a possible deadline of 2016. She is reluctant to introduce mandatary targets for existing buildings but would like Member States to set a roadmap for refurbishment.
Michel Raquet, energy advisor for the green group in the Parliament, believes the EPBD recast proposal is not ambitious enough! He also welcomed Ms Ticau's report, especially the call for a binding energy efficiency target by 2020. In terms of setting specific targets for buildings, Mr Raquet would favour targets for both new and existing buildings, which will be especially important in terms of job creation. He would, however, take this a step further by promoting plus energy buildings and including strong requirements on renewables in buildings. Mr Raquet deplored the deletion of funding for smart cities in the final economic recovery plan proposed by the Commission in January. Excess EU funds will now be used only for gas pipeline development, carbon capture and storage demonstration projects, and off-shore wind energy development. The green group intend to reinstate funding for smart cities as the Parliament will have the right to comment on the Commission text before Member States make a final decision on how the funding should be dispersed
For further information:
Amanda Afifi
EU Affairs Manager - EuroACE
Tel. +32 (0) 2 639 10 10
E-mail:amanda.afifi@euroace.org
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