Renovate Europe welcomes Parliament's call for ambitious building stock renovation targets!

The European Parliament’s Report on the Energy Roadmap 2050, adopted in the ITRE Committee on 24^th January, echoes the call already voiced in the EU Roadmap for a low-carbon economy in 2050 as well as in the Energy Efficiency Directive, to urgently address the energy efficient renovation of Europe’s buildings.

The own-initiative report on the Commission’s Energy Roadmap 2050 underlines the need to substantially scale up the rate and quality of building renovation in order to reduce the energy consumption of the existing building stock “by 80% by 2050 compared to 2010 levels”.

“Energy Efficiency is a cost-effective way for Europe to achieve its long-term energy-saving, climate change, economic and energy security goals”, reads the text of the Report. It recognizes the huge energy savings potential and economic benefits which currently lie dormant in the EU’s low-performing building stock, and reiterates the key role which energy efficiency must play in the EU’s needed energy transition towards a competitive low carbon and low energy future.

Achieving the reduction in energy demand of the EU’s building stock by 80% by 2050 was already established as a cornerstone of the EU Roadmap for moving towards a Low-carbon economy in 2050, agreed in 2011. Setting this long-term perspective for energy efficiency is essential to providing market certainty in the long-term, to unleash the needed investment in energy efficiency.

“Aligning all actors, in the public and private sector, but also at consumer level, around the same goals of reducing the energy demand of the EU’s existing building stock by 80% by 2050 is a fundamental step to achieving the EU’s goal of a competitive low-carbon and low-energy economy by 2050”, explained Adrian Joyce, Campaign Director of the Renovate Europe Campaign. “The Renovate Europe Campaign recognized this logical step in 2011, and set this target as the main vision of its Campaign, with the aim of delivering jobs, growth and lower energy bills for EU citizens.”

The Parliament’s Report also calls on the Member States to fully implement the recently adopted Energy Efficiency Directive, and to adopt ambitious long-term building renovation strategies accordingly.