EU-ASE appoints its new Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson

As of January 2023, European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) has appointed Quentin Galland as new Chairperson and renewed the mandate of Bonnie Brook as Vice-Chairperson.

Quentin Galland is Group Public & Regulatory Affairs Director at Knauf Insulation. He is a driven, collaborative and business-focused senior public affairs professional, with a passion for sustainability and energy efficiency related topics.

Bonnie Brook is Vice-President of Industry Affairs at Siemens Smart Infrastructure. She is a vibrant and engaged industry advocate for innovation in buildings to increase comfort and productivity, reduce impact on the environment and improve property value.  

Both Quentin and Bonnie bring a wealth of expertise and knowledge, coming from leader businesses in the energy efficiency world. The whole EU-ASE team warmly congratulates them for their appointment and looks forward to working together in their term.

Monica Frassoni, President of EU-ASE, said: “The urgency of the climate crisis cannot be ignored. While the energy transition is paved with many challenges, we look forward to continue working together with our business and thought leaders towards an energy efficient Europe. I welcome the appointment of Quentin and Bonnie and I am confident that they will greatly help the Alliance in its work in the years to come, starting from a busy 2023.” 

Quentin Galland said: “It has never been a greater time for Europe to save energy. Global challenges are opening up opportunities for the energy community to seize, starting with putting energy efficiency at the heart of the political agenda. I am convinced that the Alliance will be a driving and paramount contributor to high-level discussions and important decisions for all citizens.”

Bonnie Brook said: “System energy efficiency is key in achieving the EU decarbonization goals. We need the political will in the Fit for 55 legislation, subsequent accelerated implementation with vast participation and effective collaboration of all stakeholders.”

The newly appointed Chair and Vice-chair will stay in charge for the next three years, as per the internal rules of the Alliance.

More information about EU-ASE management here.

 

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The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) is a cross-sectoral, business-led organisation that ensures that the voice of energy efficiency is heard across Europe. EU-ASE members have operations across the 27 Member States of the European Union, employ over 340.000 people in Europe and have an aggregated annual turnover of €115 billion.

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Telling the energy efficiency story – 2022 in review

The energy crisis and price hikes exacerbated by the Russian invasion of Ukraine put a lot of pressure on governments, citizens and businesses, who were still recovering from the pandemic shock. 

In this context, in 2022, the Alliance threw its weight behind demonstrating to EU decision makers that existing energy efficiency solutions are key to address the energy crisis and reach climate neutrality globally.

We continued our work on the implementation of a work programme which involved all our members and was structured around four main objectives:

• Energy efficiency boosted by policy and regulatory framework
• Unleashing the energy savings potential of water efficiency in EU legislation
• Financing energy efficiency
• Smart, digital and effective communication to achieve advocacy objective

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Member States’ vision for renovating the EU building stock not aligned with the urgency to address the energy and climate crisis

Brussels, 25 October 2022 – Today, the Council of the European Union adopted its general approach (GA) on the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package to put the Union on track with the 2030 and 2050 climate neutrality targets.

Leading businesses commenting on the general approach adopted by the Council underline that achieving an energy efficient and sustainable building stock is critical for the EU to tackle today’s energy and climate crisis, worsened by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The building sector is the first EU energy consumer, thus the revision of the EPBD is a key opportunity to accelerate the very low annual building renovation rates, as only 1% of EU buildings undergo energy renovations each year.

Despite the huge role building renovations have in the EU energy transition, the European Alliance to Save Energy underlines that the Council’s vision on the revision of the EPBD is not consistent with the 2030 target for the Union to reduce at least 55% of GHG emissions, nor effective in achieving the REPowerEU goal to tackle today’s dependency on imported fossil fuels. According to the Renovation Wave strategy, the EU must at least double the current annual building renovation rates and foster deep energy retrofits, aiming at renovating 35 million building units by 2030. This target cannot be achieved with the Council’s envisioned system for Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS).

EU-ASE believes that decoupling MEPS from energy classes is not a reliable mechanism to ensure that buildings become more performing overtime, while EPCs and energy classes are already mandatory in all Member States. On the contrary, EPCs should be harmonised and reinforced. In addition, EU-ASE regrets that the Council position does not support an EU-MEPS system, preferring national renovation trajectories which should aim to deliver the ‘Zero Emission Building (ZEB) objective, but without clear compliance mechanisms after 2034 for private non-residential buildings and after 2033 for residential buildings. 

Finally, it is matter of concern that Member States may choose not to apply MEPS in single family houses in favour of an approach based on renovation trigger points based on a sell or a rental contract, which would unacceptably keep millions of EU citizens living in inefficient buildings, thus worsening energy poverty.  

Monica Frassoni, President of the Alliance, said: While recognising the efforts made by the Presidency of the Council to maintain the Zero Emission Buildings’ vision by 2050, it is evident that without a clear strategy to trigger scalable energy renovations in buildings, thousands of Europeans will keep on living in energy poverty conditions. An EPBD that is ‘fit for 55%’ means ambitious minimum energy performance standards that cover the renovation of all EU buildings so that they become Zero Emissions by 2050 at the latest.”

While the Council adopted its General Approach, the European Parliament is still negotiating compromise amendments on the Commission’s proposal which should be voted in the ITRE committee on November 29. Inter-institutional negotiations should therefore start during the first quarter of 2023.

Finally, EU-ASE welcomes the declaration proposal formulated by France and supported by Germany, Luxembourg, Belgium, the Netherlands and Ireland to push for greater ambition regarding minimum energy performance standards during inter-institutional negotiations with the Parliament.

You can find here the position of EU-ASE on the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive.

Read the PDF version of our press release here.

 

Media contact:
Antoan Montignier
+32 499 84 97 28
antoan.montignier@euase.eu

About us
The European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) is a cross-sectoral, business-led organisation that ensures that the voice of energy efficiency is heard across Europe. EU-ASE members have operations across the 27 Member States of the European Union, employ over 340.000 people in Europe and have an aggregated annual turnover of €115 billion.

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Think Efficiency first to address the energy and climate crisis

More than 20 organisations join EU-ASE in an open letter addressed to the EU negotiators revising the Energy Efficiency Directive. It calls for an effective implementation of the Energy Efficiency First principle in all of the EU, national and local policy, planning and investment projects regardless of the size of investments.

With the revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), the EU Institutions are due to agree in trialogue negotiations on provisions that introduce in the regulatory framework the implementation of the “Energy Efficiency First” Principle.

This letter, co-signed by European business organisations, housing associations and NGOs, calls on the EED negotiators to agree on applying the principle without monetary thresholds that could rule out its application in many local projects having an impact on the energy system, therefore missing the potential energy efficiency can have for the economy, society and the climate. 

Read the full letter here

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First edition of “European Energy Efficiency Day” brings together top businesses and policymakers

On 13 October 2022 the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) hosted the first edition of the “European Energy Efficiency Day”, a high-level conference bringing together leading businesses, policymakers and energy experts to explore cost efficient and socially fair decarbonisation paths.

According to the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero by 2050 report, achieving climate neutrality by 2050 requires to pushing the average average rate of energy efficiency improvements in the period 2020-2030 to about three times the average of the last two decades. The importance of energy efficiency is even more evident in the current context of high energy prices and to significantly reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels as soon as possible.

Improving energy efficiency throughout the EU can be done through massively scaling up energy efficient solutions for buildings, vehicles, home appliances and industry. Solutions and technologies which are all available today.

In this context, the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE) launched a new forum to discuss the future of energy and how to decarbonise Europe’s economy through the lenses of energy efficiency, innovation and long-term sustainability.

The European Energy Efficiency Day is a high-level policy conference aimed at exploring cost efficient and socially fair decarbonisation paths to address the energy and climate crisis and deliver the European Green Deal. The first edition of the conference took place on 13 October 2022 as an online event.

Through a series of six sessions throughout the day, the event brought together key EU and national policymakers, leading industry players, as well as experts from the energy and environment community.

Speakers included:

  • Frans Timmermans Executive Vice President for the Green Deal, European Commission
  • Simone Mori Head of Europe, Enel Group
  • Laurence Tubiana CEO, European Climate Foundation
  • David Ducarme Deputy Group CEO & Group COO, Knauf Insulation
  • Monique Goyens Director General, BEUC
  • Oliver Kraft Executive Vice President, Sustainable Communities, Siemens
  • Paula Pinho Director Just Transition, Consumers, Energy Efficiency & Innovation, DG Energy, European Commission
  • Emilio Tenuta Chief Sustainability Officer, Ecolab
  • Maive Rute Deputy Director–General, DG GROW, European Commission
  • Hayati Yarkadas President, Xylem Europe, Water Infrastructure & Global Services
    …and more!

See the full agenda & learn more on energyefficiencyday.eu

You can watch all 6 recordings below & on the EU-ASE YouTube channel

 

Session 1: Energy efficiency and renewables: building Europe’s energy transition together | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

Session 2: Reaping the benefits of the water-energy nexus | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

Session 3: Empowering city districts through digitalisation and system integration | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

Session 4: Making industry “Fit for 55” | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

Session 5: Energy efficiency: first fuel to drive Europe’s energy sovereignty | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

Session 6: Energy efficient buildings to improve citizens’ health and wellbeing | European Energy Efficiency Day 2022

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