White Paper: Energy System Efficiency for Competitiveness and Security of Energy Supply

As Europe seeks to enhance its competitiveness and resilience while addressing climate and social goals, a transformative approach to energy has become more urgent than ever.

This white paper introduces Energy System Efficiency (ESE) as a critical pillar for ensuring energy security, affordability, and decarbonisation. A holistic focus on ESE will allow Europe to boost its industrial competitiveness, strengthen energy security, and lead the global effort against climate change.

Achieving Europe’s energy transition will require cooperation across sectors. Policymakers, industries, and civil society must collaborate to align legislation, investment strategies, technologies, infrastructure, and practices that will drive the future energy system. By adopting and implementing Energy System Efficiency, Europe can secure a sustainable, competitive, and carbon-neutral future by 2050, ensuring stronger energy security and a higher quality of life for all.

Read more in our White Paper: Energy System Efficiency for Competitiveness and Security of Energy Supply

 

 

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Mission efficiency : Games are opening, let’s perform, now !

Writing this note on my way back from the first European Parliament plenary session, I can’t help but draw a parallel with the 2024 Olympics game opening soon in Paris.

I always thought of our Energy Efficiency game as a marathon, including trainings and a solid “never-give-up” mindset, whatever the political winds. We first succeeded in the initiatory 2012 EED negotiations and we made it in the 2030 climate & energy package. Things then got more serious and we managed to take our medals from the Fit for 55 real marathon. We even secured that everyone would start exercising with mainstreaming our Energy Efficiency First principle into the broader policy spectrum.

So, what are we up to at the start of the 2024-29 mandate ?  

First, time to perform! And our performance – called implementation in the EU jargon – is about delivering more savings and valorising the genuine value of energy efficiency. It is not just about running and being resilient, efficiency will help with changing cycling gears in the energy transition towards 2040, and be faster at integrating renewables in the grid. It is empowering our industry to swim better in the global competitiveness race. In fact, energy efficiency looks more like a triathlon game.

Second, our Efficiency Club should get bigger, as everyone trying it gets a more stable future, a healthier home and an extra protection against energy price volatility. In this perspective, efficiency is key to solve housing issues and secure low bills in the long run. But as many good things, its benefits have been kept secret for too long. So let’s get more affiliates in the club – not only the geeky ones – and a bigger crowd celebrating successes.

Last but not least, we need sponsors. Continuity and diversity will be key here, as we certainly need continuous public funding e.g. from the EU recovery, cohesion, ETS and modernisation funding streams, but crucially also a more diverse set of private sponsors. If you or any of your friends happen to be interested in good investments, come and talk to me at the end of the Olympics !

 

Céline Carré
Head of Public Affairs
Saint-Gobain

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EU-ASE Welcomes the final approval of the EPBD

Today’s final approval of the EPBD by the Council marks an important step in the finalisation of the Green Deal. Despite the significant weakening of its original scope and ambition throughout the legislative process, this Directive demonstrates the continued commitment of the EU and its Member States to improving energy efficiency and sustainability in the buildings sector.

The revised EPBD introduces measures aimed at accelerating the transition to zero-emission buildings and improving the overall energy performance of the EU building stock. All new buildings in the EU will be required to be zero-emitting from 2030, with public buildings leading the way from 2028.

The final agreement does not include a mandate for harmonized energy performance certification across Member States, as originally proposed by the European Commission and supported by the European Parliament. Instead, each country will continue to use its own energy performance certificates (EPCs). While this is an unwelcome departure from the original harmonisation proposal, the agreement still underlines the importance of empowering consumers to make informed choices and incentivising energy-efficient investments.

Member States will have to renovate 16% of the worst performing buildings in the non-residential sector by 2030, rising to 26% by 2033. Member States have the flexibility to choose whether to achieve reductions in primary or final energy consumption. For the residential sector, Member States are required to set a national trajectory to reduce the average primary energy consumption of buildings by 16% by 2030 and by 20-22% by 2035. In particular, 55% of this reduction is expected to come from the renovation of the worst performing residential buildings. In addition, Member States have the flexibility to exempt certain categories of buildings, including historic and agricultural buildings, recognising their characteristics while ensuring that energy efficiency remains a priority.

Monica Frassoni, President of European Alliance to Save Energy, said: “While we welcome these achievements, especially in the current volatile and uncertain political and economic context, it is important to recognise the challenges that lie ahead. Swift and robust implementation of the revised EPBD will be critical to realising its full potential.”

Read the full press release here.

 

Media contact:
Luigi Petito 
Head of Secretariat 
info@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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EU-ASE Manifesto 2024 – 2029: Prioritizing energy system efficiency for a sustainable and competitive Europe

As we approach the European Election in June 2024, we stand at a critical juncture. The decisions made by the next European Parliament and Commission will profoundly shape the trajectory of the European Green Deal.  

After the completion of the Fit For 55 legislation package, the challenge is now to implement it effectively to significantly contribute to our climate change mitigation and adaptation efforts.

At the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE), we believe that a climate-neutral Europe by 2050 hinges upon substantially reducing our energy need and prioritizing energy system efficiency as the cornerstone of our transition to a sustainable energy landscape characterized by the synergic combination between energy efficiency solutions, renewable energy sources and demand side flexibility.

An energy system efficiency approach connecting buildings, mobility, industrial ecosystems and renewable energy supply is the most beneficial and cost-effective way to promptly phase out fossil fuels and achieve the EU’s 2030, 2040, and 2050 climate goals. Embracing energy system efficiency will unlock multiple benefits for the European Union:

  • Lowering energy bills for citizens and operational costs for businesses, enhancing economic well-being while preserving natural resources and avoiding conflicts.
  • Shielding against future energy crises, price volatility and social unrest, ensuring a stable energy supply and bolstering security for citizens and businesses.
  • Accelerating the transition from fossil fuels to renewables by reducing overall energy demand and optimizing consumption.

We call upon the newly elected Members of the European Parliament and the new European Commission to undertake 5 actions.

Read more in our Manifesto 2024-2029: Prioritizing Energy System Efficiency for a Competitive and Sustainable Europe

 

 

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Action on energy efficiency requires both technological and social change

Although sometimes overlooked in the race to devise innovative solutions to the climate crisis, energy efficiency remains crucially important. Energy efficiency has contributed to greater savings in primary energy and faster reductions in emissions compared to the transition to renewable energy resources. While the growth in global energy consumption dropped by 2.1% during the pandemic year of 2022, the growth rate remains higher than the average rate measured from 2010 to 2019. What can we do to slow this rate of growth, or even reverse it?

One of the best ways to take immediate and effective action is to transition from conventional lighting to energy-efficient LED lighting. LED light sources consume less than half the energy consumed by incandescent and fluorescent light sources, and up to 80% less energy when managed in a connected system. An individual light bulb or luminaire consumes a small amount of energy, but since lighting is everywhere that people are, the global lighting footprint is significant.

This means that transitioning to energy-efficient lighting solutions can have a significant effect. Since economic growth results in global increases in the use of artificial lighting, inaction will result in a significant increase in global energy consumption for lighting by 2030. While the global transition to energy-efficient LED lighting is moving very quickly—approximately 85% of lighting sales at Signify are LED today, for example—there are still significant benefits that can be gained by accelerating the depletion of the installed base of conventional lighting, which still accounts for almost 50% of all light points in the EU and the US. In fact, the worldwide switch to LED and connected LED could decrease global energy demand for electricity by 30%, while at the same time reducing carbon emissions by 1.4 billion metric tons a year. The switch is easy and relatively inexpensive to make, in both residential and commercial built environments.

It is important to keep in mind that making the transition to energy-efficient lighting involves not just technological change but also social change. People should be willing to make the switch. Individuals have to understand the positive effects of well-managed LED lighting on comfort and well-being. Businesses and cities have to understand its advantages not only in terms of energy and emissions reductions but also in terms of improvements to operations and quality of life.

A sense of urgency is appropriate. But fearmongering and finger-pointing will not bring about the necessary social change. Instead, the emphasis has to be on taking effective energy-efficiency action and improving the quality of life, work, and the economy. With the right approach, we can have our cake and eat it too.

 

Harry Verhaar
Global Head of Brand, Communication & Marketing
Signify

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