“Deep renovation of the building stock in EU”, the priority of the new Renovate Europes Commision

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Renovate Europe’s fourth Annual High-Level Conference, REDay 2014, was held in Brussels, Belgium, on 5th November.

A new Commision took office in the meeting and its first message was so clear: deep renovation of the building stock in the EU must be the number 1 priority.

Fresh reports presented at REDay2014 demonstrated the newly researched multiple benefits of building renovations, as well as the significant economic impact of the buildings sector in the EU.

But not only are the economics right, because the experience shows an even greater success and appetite for doing more: successful renovation projects which are financially viable and produce local jobs, reduced energy demand and healthier homes.

“Individual renovation projects have shown over and over that it is possible to reduce the energy demand in buildings by more than 80 % in a cost-effective manner,” explained Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign Director. “Now we need to focus our attention on how to upscale ambitious energy renovation of the existing building stock and for this we need a political drive.”

Unfortunately, as explained by Oliver Rapf from BPIE, Member States have failed to implement ambitious Renovation Roadmaps, and to develop strong collaborative platforms to address renovation, thereby failing to provide the holistic vision and market certainty needed to unlock investment.

Despite the significant contribution that buildings can make towards reducing energy imports, a clear strategy to tackle energy waste in buildings is also absent from both the 2030 Energy & Climate Package, and the European Energy Security Strategy.

In the October Council conclusions, Member States committed to address priority sectors in which significant energy efficiency gains can be reaped.

In tackling buildings as the key priority sector, the Commission and Member States would benefit from the support of 80 MEPs from across the political spectrum who have already signed the Renovate Europe Manifesto to STOP Energy waste in buildings.