EU-ASE at Kyoto Club webinar: EU updates and the EPBD & EED directives.

On Tuesday 31 January, EU-ASE Policy and Advocacy Advisor Matteo Guidi spoke at the second webinar of the new cycle of the Legambiente and Kyoto Club’s “For decarbonisation: energy efficiency and heating in buildings in Italy” awareness campaign.

The webinar titled: EU updates and the EPBD and EED directives aims to build on a campaign to stop the spread of residential heating systems powered by fossil fuels and to raise awareness among the public, companies and public decision-makers by proposing amendment proposals to current Italian and European legislation.

Speakers included:

  • Matteo Guidi, Policy and Advocacy Advisor – European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE)
  • Davide Sabbadin, Deputy Policy Manager for Climate – European Environmentale Bureau
  • Eva Brardinelli, Buildings Policy Coordinator – Climate Action Network Europe
  • Marco Grippa, Program Manager – Environmental Coalition on Standards
  • Introduction and moderation: Clementina Taliento, Kyoto Club

View more information about the webinar and campaign here.

 

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EU-ASE at event: The transition plans – beyond sustainable finance?

On Wednesday 30 November 2022, EU-ASE President Monica Frassoni spoke at an event by ERCST titled: The transition plans – beyond sustainable finance?

 The idea of presenting a transition plan – i.e., ensuring that the business model and strategy of the undertaking are compatible with the transition to a sustainable economy and with the limiting of global warming to 1.5 °C, in line with the Paris Agreement – will soon turn into a concrete legal obligation. It is mandated by the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and contemplated in other pieces of European sustainable finance legislation: the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the EU Green Bonds Standard. But this kind of requirement expands beyond the sustainable finance realm. For example, the European Parliament wants to reduce the amount of ETS free allocations for companies not having a decarbonisation plan or failing to meet their milestones.

However, it remains unclear how to turn those very forward-looking and complex commitments into real change by individual companies throughout the various business models.

The event aims at identifying the objective, scope, and challenges in addressing the requirement of presenting transition plans in and beyond the EU corporate sustainability framework.

Hosted by the European Roundable on Climate Change and Sustainable Development (ERCST), this hybrid event took plance online and in person.

View the full agenda here.
View the full ERCST presentation here.

Find more information about the event here.

 

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EU-ASE at Powering our buildings: how policies can support energy efficiency through building electrification

On Thursday 24 November 2022, EU-ASE participated in “Powering our buildings: how policies can support energy efficiency through building electrification”.

EU-ASE President Monica Frassoni spoke at the launch of a new study by FIRE Federazione Italiana per l’uso Razionale dell’Energia and the Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy Foundation (IEECP), discussing the challenges we face to electrify, decarbonise and strengthen the EU energy system.

View the full agenda here.

Find more information about the study here.

 

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Interview: To shave peak demand, EU states should impose ‘flexibility’ on industry

“The EU’s high gas dependency can be reduced through both electriciation and energy efficiency,” Francesco Venturini of Enel X Global Retail told Frédéric Simon of Euractiv ahead of European Energy Efficiency Day 2022.

The biggest potential for short-term energy demand reduction lies with industrial consumers, says Francesco Venturini. Those savings can be tapped with programmes that reward businesses who adapt their demand to energy supply, he argues.

Interview highlights:

  • Big industrial loads offer the biggest opportunity to efficiently manage peak electricity consumption
  • EU countries should introduce forms of mandatory flexibility, rewarding businesses that are able to adapt their demand to electricity supply
  • Europe has sufficient gas storage to get through this winter without rationing. Potential shortages could especially affect the winter 2023-2024 and the following ones
  • Today’s high gas prices are driven mostly by speculation. This should be reined in with the introduction of a temporary price cap on European gas
  • For private consumers, regulations should be adjusted to encourage energy self-consumption, like solar panels and batteries. Other examples include citizen-led Energy Communities, tax deductions for heat pumps, removing subsidies for gas boilers, and a ‘right to plug-in’ for consumers
  • When it comes to public spending, Enel believes policies that promote energy savings from direct fossil fuel combustion must be excluded from eligible measures to achieve EU members states’ energy savings obligations

Read the full interview in Euractiv.

More information on Energy Efficiency Day here.

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Insulation exec.: ‘Heat pumps alone will not do the trick’

Energy efficiency has a huge role to play to deliver renewable energy to households whilst limiting costly investments into energy capacity for society, David Ducarme, Group chief operating officer at Knauf Insulation told Frédéric Simon of Euractiv.

A properly insulated home will allow heat pumps to deliver their “magic trick” – a 400% efficiency rating over the 90% figure observed for fossil gas boilers. Yet, these efficiency gains will not materialise unless homes are heat-pump ready, says David Ducarme.

Interview highlights:

  • Long-term measures to reduce energy demand are essential to address the root causes of the energy crisis Europe is facing.
  • Buildings remain Europe’s year-round weak spot in the energy transition. Drastically improving the energy performance of buildings envelopes would decrease by 45% the energy demand for heating and cooling from buildings.
  • Heat pumps alone will not do the trick. A properly insulated home will allow heat pumps to deliver their “magic trick” – pulling four units of heat out of each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity. Otherwise, they will not deliver as much.
  • Heat pumps will also pose challenges to the electricity grid, with demand for electric heating set to increase by 356 Terawatt hours per year (TWh/y). Without insulation, the additional generation capacity needed to meet peak winter demand would need to be 2,129 TWh/year, almost five times more.
  • The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) will be the backbone of resilient and decarbonised building stock.
  • Long-term decarbonisation of the building stock also entails setting long-term trajectories on whole-life carbon reduction.

 

Read the full interview in Euractiv.

More information on Energy Efficiency Day here.

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