Energy & Climate: Orgalim contribution to the Commission consultation on the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

As announced in the European Green Deal, the Commission adopted on 14 October 2020 a strategic Communication "Renovation Wave for Europe - greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives." It contains an action plan with specific regulatory, financing and enabling measures for the years to come and pursues the aim to at least double the annual energy renovation rate of buildings by 2030 and to foster deep renovations. It is expected that mobilising forces at all levels towards these goals will result in 35 million building units renovated by 2030.

The Renovation Wave confirms that the existing legislative measures on buildings will neither suffice to achieve the increased EU 2030 climate target of at least 55% emission reduction target and the planned increase in the ambition for energy efficiency, nor the 2050 climate neutrality objective. Therefore, the Renovation Wave communication announces a revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD) together with a number of areas of legislative and non-legislative reinforcement in relation to building renovation and decarbonisation of buildings. The EPBD is the cornerstone of European legislation in the area of energy performance of buildings. It aims at accelerating the transformation of the EU building stock into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.

The Renovation Wave already indicated some specific aspects which will be addressed in the revision of the EPBD, namely: the phased introduction of mandatory minimum energy performance standards for all types of buildings (public and private), an update of the framework for Energy Performance Certificates, the introduction of Building Renovation Passports and the introduction of a ‘deep renovation’ standard in the context of financing and building decarbonisation objectives. The requirements for new buildings and measures fostering sustainable mobility are also considered to be updated in line with the enhanced climate ambition of the European Green Deal and the Climate Target Plan 2030. This includes addressing resource efficiency and circularity principles in order to reduce whole lifecycle emissions, digitalisation in design, construction and operation of buildings, climate resilience and health and environmental requirements, as well as accessibility for persons with disabilities, and energy poverty, requires consideration. More information is provided in the Inception Impact Assessment.

This questionnaire is part of a larger stakeholder consultation which will feed into the Commission's work on the revision of the EPBD. It builds upon the results from the very extensive and in-depth public consultation for the Renovation Wave that took place between January and September 2020, whose results have been assessed in a dedicated report.

Please download the document above to see the full questionnaire.