Letter in Financial Times: Renovating buildings will help reduce energy bills

On 9 November the Financial Times published in its print edition a letter by the president of the European Alliance to Save Energy, Monica Frassoni.

Stepping up building energy renovations offers a solution to the issue of soaring energy bills, yet this is overlooked by decision makers, the letter says.

Today, which energy efficient technologies, it is possible to reduce buildings’ energy needs for heating and cooling by 60%. Still the average renovation rate of the EU’s building stock remains under 1% per year.

With over 34m people living in energy poverty, we are playing with fire, the letter continues. Energy efficiency is a rational, cost-effective and systemic solution for the energy price surge.

Read the full letter here

The letter can also be found on the FT website.

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Interview with Debating Europe

EU-ASE president Monica Frassoni was interviewed by Debating Europe as part of the debate How can we make Europe’s buildings more energy-efficient?, organised in cooperation with the Climate Pact. During the interview, she replied to the questions sent by European citizens on the topic.

Watch the debate How can we make Europe’s buildings more energy efficient?

Debating Europe is a project of Friends of Europe. It hosts a successful online discussion platform based on a simple model: citizens ask questions, policymakers and experts respond. Since launching, it has built a 6 million strong community of citizens and a social media following of over 271,000 people from across Europe. To date, a selection of 180,000 questions has been put to over 3000 key policymakers and experts.

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A three-step recipe to transform our buildings | EUSEW 2021

by Bertrand Deprez, Vice-President EU Government Affairs at Schneider Electric and board member of the European Alliance to Save Energy, & Céline Carré, Head of European Public Affairs at Saint-Gobain, a member of the European Alliance to Save Energy.

This is no secret: with more than 38% of Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions, buildings represent one of the largest bulk of decarbonisation. And with 40% of energy consumption, they can even lead the energy efficiency race. However, so far, the efforts deployed at the European and national levels to accelerate the renovation of the buildings stock have not been sufficient to drive their long-term decarbonisation. If we want this to change, and to make highly efficient buildings in a fully decarbonised and connected energy system a reality, three levers should be activated simultaneously.

First, aligning hearts and minds around the unique contribution of buildings can happen via the joint revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, Energy Efficiency Directive and Renewable Energy Directive. The Renovation Wave strategy has set the direction, but specific milestones and acceleration points now need to take shape. Among those are minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) on existing buildings, a tool to drive demand for renovation. Such MEPS should be deployed for first movers segments, such as non-residential and worst-performing residential buildings particularly affected by soaring energy prices. Then, new and existing buildings should be made fit for our 2050 carbon neutrality goals. In this journey, better accounting for reflecting emissions reduction potentials from new buildings and major renovations, on top of energy savings, will also help coordinate and align actions, especially when it comes to boosting the uptake of both energy efficiency measures and renewables, such as directly electrified solutions powered by renewables.

Second, unleashing new business models to finance and roll out renovations will ensure that the ambition is fulfilled. Deploying renovation and recovery is a combined challenge of preparedness and speed. The construction sector is getting ready with new approaches enabling to renovate faster and better. We need more innovators and integrators to plug these new business models together with available finance. The implementation of the post Covid-19 national recovery plans is a unique opportunity to fill the gap in this field.

Read the full article on the EUSEW 2021 blog

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Strengthening technical assistance to deliver the Renovation Wave

AGENDA

10:00 Setting the scene and moderation
Monica Frassoni, President, European Alliance to Save Energy

10:05 Cohesion policies and technical assistance
Nicola de Michelis, Director for Smart & Sustainable Growth and Programme Implementation, DG Regio, European Commission
Cristina Rehberger, Deputy Director for Programming & Evaluation of European Funds, Ministry of Finance, Spain
Quentin Galland, Public Affairs Director, Knauf Insulation
Jordi Manrique, Public and Government Affairs Manager, Signify Spain & Portugal

10:35 Supporting Member States to implement energy efficiency projects
Nathalie Berger, Director for Support to Member States’ Reforms, DG Reform, European Commission
Renzo Tomellini, Head of the Technical Secretariat of Minister Cingolani, Ministry of Ecological Transition, Italy
Brook Riley, Head of EU Affairs, Rockwool
Julie Kjestrup, Head of EU Affairs, Danfoss

11:05 Boosting technical assistance through EU legislation
Paula Pinho, Director for Just Transition, Consumers, Energy Efficiency and Innovation, DG Energy, European Commission
Bertrand Deprez, Vice President EU Government Affairs, Schneider Electric
Harry Verhaar, Head of Global Public and Affairs, Signify

Lack of technical support and inadequate administrative capacity are among the key barriers preventing the scale-up of energy efficiency projects in the EU Member States.

Technical assistance plays a central role in removing the administrative, financial and other hurdles for ministries, cities, local authorities, businesses and households to renovate buildings. This webinar brought together representatives of the European Commission, national governments and leading businesses to discuss how to strengthen technical assistance and deliver a wave of renovations across Europe.

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Cohesion Policy: Inputs to deliver energy savings and long-term resilience

Energy efficiency gains are essential to reach the European Union increased emission reduction target by 2030 and climate neutrality by 2050. The EU cohesion policy programming for 2021-2027 can greatly contribute to promoting the uptake of energy efficient measures, making sure that no region or city is left behind in the transition to a clean and sustainable economy.

The current decade will be crucial for the European Union and its Member States to deliver on the EU higher energy and climate targets by 2030 and reach climate neutrality by 2050.

The EU Cohesion Policy programming for the period 2021-2027 can greatly contribute to these efforts and make sure that no European region and city is left behind in the transition to a clean and sustainable economy.

From an energy and climate point of view, it is key that Cohesion funding resources are allocated wisely and timely with the goal to boost sustainable economic growth, while delivering energy savings across sectors and the full decarbonisation of our society.
 

Read the full paper

 

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