Towards EU Member States Economic Recovery: The potential of buildings in delivering jobs and a better quality of life.
Maria Spyraki MEP is the rapporteur for the opinion “Maximising the energy efficiency potential of the EU building stock” on behalf of the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI). The EU has long been considered a frontrunner in the field of climate and environment policy. In that perspective, the European Green Deal, a set of policy initiatives by the European Commission with the overarching aspiration of making Europe climate neutral in 2050, aims for the EU transition to a climate neutral, modern,…
Creating a dedicated Renovation Fund in the EU Recovery and Resilience Initiative
The European Union is planning to assign a vast amount of money to its Recovery and Resilience Initiative, intended to lift the EU economy out of the recession provoked by the global public health pandemic and to put the EU economy firmly on the path to climate neutrality by 2050. Among the sectors recognised at all political levels as holding the most promise for stimulating the economy, is the energy renovation of our building stock. In general, the building stock in the EU can be described as old, inefficient and in need of renovation. For this reason, the…
Beneficial Undercurrents for the Renovation Wave
By Adrian Joyce, Director of the Renovate Europe Campaign The Renovate Europe Campaign (REC) impatiently awaits the text of the European Commission Communication and Action Plan on creating a Renovation Wave in the EU. We are encouraged that the huge energy saving potential of the building stock in the EU is at last being mentioned at the highest political levels across the EU and in its Member States. Still, we are concerned that turning words into actions will still elude our national leaders and so we asked the Buildings Performance Institute Europe (BPIE) to undertake a Study on the…
OP-ED Energy renovation is the perfect recovery measure for post-COVID-19
By Adrian Joyce, Director of the Renovate Europe Campaign As COVID-19 keeps millions of European employees and students at home, and wreaks havoc on our economies, we should already be considering how we can use the EU Green Deal (EGD) to kickstart a rebound in the post-pandemic period. At Renovate Europe, we see energy renovation as a great means to contain the economic fallout. Millions of public sector buildings are currently empty and may remain so – particularly schools – for the coming 3-6 months. Quick action by policy makers, backed with financial stimulus, to support an…
Renovate Europe reaches out to safeguard Energy Renovation in InvestEU
Ahead of the trilogues on InvestEU scheduled today Monday 18th and Wednesday 20th, Renovate Europe called on the negotiators to safeguard energy renovation of buildings as an explicit investment area in the Sustainable Infrastructure Window. Indeed, article 7§1(a) should explicitly mention “(…) energy efficiency in line with the 2030 energy frameworks, buildings renovation projects focused on energy savings (…)” as in the Parliament position, supported by the Commission potential compromise text. Buildings, whether schools, hospitals, police stations, or houses and apartments, are an…
Time to address Europe’s hot and cold homes crisis
(Jonathan Fox/ Flickr) By Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign Director 20 February 2019 Is it acceptable in 2019 that nearly one in ten households across Europe are unable to keep their homes warm in winter? We have grown so used to living with energy poverty that it may seem strange to ask that question, even when a Friends of the Earth report out today finds that most European countries have significant energy poverty problems and will not be able to keep their citizens warm this year. In a graphic to makes architects’ hearts sink, Bulgaria, Hungary and Slovakia foot the table for…