Decarbonising heat is the challenge of the next decade

The incoming Commissioner for Energy must be tasked with delivering the clean heat transition. Phasing out fossil fuels in heating and cooling is the gateway towards energy security, affordability, European industrial competitiveness, and essential climate action.

Sigrid Friis is a Member of the European Parliament. Aurélie Beauvais is Managing Director of Euroheat & Power.

Heating and cooling in the EU accounts for almost half of energy demand. It is still mostly powered by fossil fuels, despite the availability of clean heat technologies such as heat pumps or efficient district heating and cooling, and abundant resources such as solar thermal, geothermal and excess heat.

It’s time to accelerate the transition to clean heating and cooling because it’s the lynchpin for a low-carbon economy and society. Full decarbonisation of heating and cooling is needed to reach climate-neutrality in the EU by 2050. But research commissioned by the Cool Heating Coalition shows that at the current rate of decarbonisation, Member States will fail to do this by 2040 or by 2050.

Clean heating and cooling is key to achieving affordability and energy security - major energy transition challenges. The importance of a sectoral approach to heating and cooling has already been recognised by more than 20 EU organisations and 15 EU Member States in their call for clear political signals to deliver on decarbonisation.

Earlier this year, the European Parliament’s own-Initiative report on geothermal energy called on the European Commission to present an EU geothermal strategy to accelerate the deployment of geothermal energy, and to at least triple the share of energy demand covered by solar heat and geothermal energy by 2030, in line with the ambitions of the EU Solar Strategy.

Investment in our energy infrastructure is also necessary. As proposed in this European elections manifesto, a green EU ‘super fund’ of €2000 billion could unite us as a common European Energy Union and pave the way to a more secure future.

There is no time to lose - the EU’s fossil gas import dependency was 90% in 2023, and more than one-third of this fossil gas is used for heating and cooling.

To take one example, geothermal district heating is a viable option available across the EU to diversify the local heating (and cooling) mixes to respond to local needs. The potential is huge: geothermal energy could provide 30-45% of the heat for the EU’s district heating mix. But, as noted by the International Energy Agency, the decarbonisation potential of district heating is largely untapped, as fossil fuels still dominate district network supplies.

Moreover, the EU has established industries with quality jobs for clean heating technologies. The heat pump industry already has 250 EU manufacturing sites, €14.5 billion turnover, and could provide 500,000 jobs by 2030.

Solar thermal already supplies 10 million EU households. Geothermal energy could supply 25% of EU heating demand by 2030, plus up to 75% of European heat demand and 15% of electricity consumption by 2040.

District heating and cooling is also a major home-grown heating industry supplying over 70 million people in the EU, and with a global market valued at €121.66 billion in 2024.

Advancing the clean heat transition will grow local and Europe-wide economies and help to position the EU as a global cleantech exporter.

Job creation is not the only societal benefit. Since the start of Europe's energy crisis, the large share of imported fossil fuels (particularly gas) in heating and cooling had a decisive effect on the soaring energy bills that affected European households, small and medium-sized businesses, and industries.

Low-income households bear the brunt of rising energy prices. In 2022, the average annual energy bill was more than one month’s wages for low-paid workers in 16 EU countries.

Clean heating and cooling solutions are available and are financially viable: low-income households need targeted support. The energy transition will not succeed unless it is a just transition; nor will it succeed without a policy push to accelerate the transition to clean heating and cooling.

Phasing out fossil fuels in heating and cooling is a concrete, practical solution to central concerns of the last European elections: reinforcing EU energy security, guaranteeing affordability and social justice, and fostering European industrial competitiveness.

We therefore call upon the European Commission to develop a robust heating and cooling action plan, including a dedicated strategy on geothermal district heating, and for the Commissioner for Energy to be explicitly tasked in their mission letter with advancing the transition to decarbonised, affordable and renewable heating and cooling.