EuroACE, the federation of companies producing energy-saving goods and services, will publish the results of its new survey on very low-energy buildings today (18 February). The study argues that the EU could reduce CO2 emissions by at least 36 Mt per year in 2020 while saving 568 PJ of energy if all new buildings were to be constructed as very low-energy buildings from 2012 (see EurActiv LinksDossier).
The survey was conducted in five member states - Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom - which were deemed to have the most advanced national strategies to promote low-energy building. Together, these countries are home to half of EU citizens, and the results were therefore seen to be a conservative representation of the current state of the sector across the Union as a whole, considering that energy savings potential is considerably higher in the Eastern member states than in a country like Denmark.
Nevertheless, the results of the detailed calculations were not the main message of the study, Susanne Dyrbøl of EuroAce told EurActiv in an interview. "The main lesson is not so much the estimated energy and CO2 savings, which are in line with the Commission's impact assessment of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) recast, it is more to show other member states how it can be done. Also, if the member states start to explain their plans, it will be so much easier for the construction sector to guide their development and process to be in line with what the government wants," she said.
Dyrbøl said that all member states answering the questionnaire identified a clearly communicated long-term policy framework as crucial. "A timely announcement of further tightening of energy performance requirements was judged to be very efficient to promote very low-energy buildings, which I can confirm from an industry point of view as well," she concluded.
"For me, at least, it is very clear that the member states really need to make a long-term plan," she emphasised, adding that the industry will deliver low-energy construction and components as soon as there is certainty about future demand for these. "As soon as the industry knows where the government wants to go, it will speed up the process," she stated.
The EU's Enery Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) did not give national governments appropriate incentives to devise such strategies as it only required them to revise their building requirements every five years, without an obligation to actually strengthen them, she argued. She said, however, that the EPBD seemed to have an impact beyond its ambitions just by asking EU countries to look at their building codes.
"We have identified at least eight countries which have made a plan on how their energy requirements will be strengthened up to 2020," Dyrbøl said, stressing that "ambitious European legislation" like the current recast of the EPBD is still urgently needed to guide the development of low-energy building.
She argued that the Commission's proposal for the recast (EurActiv 14/11/09) was already "quite ambitious" but could be further improved. Notably, EuroACE would like to see a requirement for all new buildings to be constructed as low-energy buildings by 2012, while a majority of buildings should be zero-carbon by 2015.
Dyrbøl said EuroACE would present the results of the survey to the Commission, adding that the greatest value would be for those countries still considering options for their own low-energy building strategies. "We hope it will be used by the member states to see that low energy buildings are not just a vision but something that is already happening in several member states," she concluded.
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