Buildings blueprint set to cut Europe’s energy bill by a fifth

By Elisabeth Jeffries

Date: 14/10/04

THE buildings sector offers the largest single potential for energy savings in the EU. Buildings account for 40% of the EU's energy needs. The demand for lighting, hot water, heating and cooling in homes, offices and other buildings, outweighs the energy consumption of transport or industry.

The European Commission believes that one-fifth of present energy consumption could be saved by 2010 if more ambitious standards were applied to new buildings and to the refurbishment of old buildings. In addition, the EU could cut emissions of carbon dioxide by 30-45 megatonnes per year.

The directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD), passed at the end of 2002, requires member states to incorporate its provisions into their national legislation by January 2006.

The directive sets a common methodology for calculating the energy performance of buildings. Each member state will be left free to determine its minimum standards for energy performance, taking into account local climatic conditions.

These conditions will apply to all new buildings constructed after January 2006. For buildings over 1,000 square metres, a feasibility assessment of alternative heating and energy supply systems must be carried out. But the arguments are still being fought over whether the 2002 law is demanding enough to make a significant difference.

A report published in March 2004 by Ecofys, an environmental consultancy in Utrecht, suggests that as it stands the EPBD will cut 35 million tonnes of emissions of carbon dioxide per year, just 10% of the potential emissions if existing buildings of less than 1,000 square metres - 77% of Europe's building stock - were included.

Northern countries, such as Germany, Denmark and the UK are going beyond the directive's minimum requirements and introducing legislation covering buildings smaller than 1000m2.

But other countries are not going beyond the bare minimum. Studies suggest that the Mediterranean countries are the most poorly insulated and are responsible for a greater CO2 emissions.

Horst Biedermann, director general of Eurima, says the EU law is "a lost opportunity" because it does not take into account residential housing.

He quotes a survey of 500 key stakeholders this July, 91% of whom believe that more political action is needed to increase energy efficiency in Europe. Of these, 40% say that the EPBD does not go far enough.

"Energy efficiency in buildings should be top of the agenda to achieve the EU's Kyoto targets and reduce dependency on foreign energy supplies," he says.

Eurima is proposing that either the directive should be amended to lower the minimum floor area to which it applies, or there should be a supplementary directive for residential housing, a suggestion which has been put to the Commission's department of transport and energy.

The European construction developers are tentatively in favour of the directive in its existing form.

Laurent Weller, managing director of the European Union of Project Developers, says: "We cannot oppose actions to protect consumers and we're in favour of the environment.

"However, the cost is always paid for by the end user and in this case the introduction of energy performance certification will increase costs. We think the 1,000m2 is quite a good threshold," he says.

Andrew Warren, director of the UK-based Association for the Conservation of Energy, who sits on a Commission policy advisory forum concedes that "this is the archetypal subsidiarity directive; not all member states will deliver it on the same principle one would like to see it a great deal tougher".

"The only way to make the laggards come on board," he says, "is to revisit it" .

• Elisabeth Jeffries is a freelance journalist based in London.

The European Commission believes that one-fifth of present energy consumption could be saved by 2010 if more ambitious standards were applied to new buildings and to the refurbishment of old buildings. The directive on the energy performance of buildings (EPBD), passed at the end of 2002, requires Member States to incorporate its provisions into their national legislation by January 2006.