Developing and running a dashboard on the energy performance of the EU building stock. The dashboard monitors the progress of Europe’s buildings towards the 2050 net-zero GHG emissions goal across the EU 27 Member States.
The European Climate Foundation mandated the dashboard.
A new era for energy effciency policies is about to start. On the 10th of March 2023, EU law-makers achieved a deal for the recast of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).
The 2030 energy efficiency target has become more ambitious, responding to soaring energy costs and to the war in Europe. But it still falls short of what would make sense from a climate protection and responsible investor perspective.
But most importantly, the EU’s 2030 target has become more focused and comes with a credible governance to reassure investors, businesses and citizens that it is much more serious this time around. Member States have new obligations vis-à-vis the EU target and to put in place energy efficiency measures that will be checked against delivery.
Implementation will have to be very fast to catch up with the cycle of National Energy and Climate Plans. It will require timely delivery by the Commission to work with the new benchmarks and to correct national contributions.
Not all countries are happy with the benchmarks set in the new EED for their national contributions. Those who think they did more in the past than others tend to feel disadvantaged. That was the case with the first EED, the 2018 revision and now again.
With a bit of distance, we hope that the perspective becomes clearer, that national energy saving efforts are not an altruism, but are bottom line services to lower costs for citizens and business and shield national interests from fossil fuel wars.
In a nutshell
The new EED has increased the 2030 energy efficiency ambition: the EU targets are set at 763 Mtoe final energy consumption and 992,5 Mtoe primary energy consumption, which is 11.7% below the Reference Scenario 2020. However, this remains still well below the cost-effective potential which kept increasing with higher energy prices.
The governance of the 2030 target for final energy consumption has been significantly strengthened. The binding character of the EU level target is manifested by legal obligations on the European Commission and Member States.
The EED comes now with a new gap-avoider tool: the Commission has to ensure that national contributions leave no gap to the EU target. In case of low ambition, Member States have to accept and apply a corrected contribution handed over by the Commission. A last-minute addition to the baseline used for the assessment of national contributions causes uncertainties about the functioning of the governance tools. But in our understanding, the impact will be limited.
Furthermore, a new gap-filler tool is added: the adequacy of national energy efficiency measures will be checked against delivery. Member States have to set an indicative trajectory. If a Member State is above the trajectory, it will be obliged to put in place additional energy efficiency measures.
The EU’s target for primary energy demand is only indicative and the governance tools do not apply to it. It weakens energy efficiency policies targeting the whole energy system, including generation, storage and transmission.
The German government is about to propose an ambitious energy efficiency law.
Environmental and business groups have been calling for a legal framework on energy efficiency for many years. Chancellor Scholz decided that it was about time and ordered his government to deliver.
Our briefing provides an overview of what is in the draft law which is currently prepared by the ministry in charge of energy and puts it into the context of the ongoing recast of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive.
Toxic-free for EU is a new weekly briefing on EU politics and chemicals regulatory affairs, brought to you by CHEM Trust.
Chemicals policies are moving into the limelight as the European Commission is expected to publish next year a proposal for revising the main EU chemicals law, REACH. This proposal shall then move to the European Parliament and Council.
At the centre of the Commission’s reform plans are new regulatory instruments to ensure everyday consumer products are free from the most harmful chemicals. It includes the first revision ever of the REACH regulation from 2006 and the updating of the laws on classifying chemicals to introduce new hazard classes for hormone disrupting and chemicals that create persistent pollution.
The process of creating the EU’s modern REACH chemicals rules was very controversial twenty years ago. We expect something similar this time around.
With this weekly briefing, we intend to provide orientation and guidance through the upcoming decision-making procedures on these revised laws. We will report on proposals, positions, arguments and solutions on how to achieve an effective and efficient legal framework for toxic-free products in Europe.
If you are interested in receiving our weekly update, please subscribe here!
Advocated a high environmental level playing field in the Brexit treaties and producing Brexit Watch, a news update covering the unfolding future EU-UK relationship.
Support for creating knowledge and capacities for EU policy development and for energy saving targets. Management of the Energy Savings 2020 study by Ecofys and Fraunhofer ISI.
Managing the project “Stronger EED Target Governance” and publishing an assessment of energy efficiency in the Fit for 55 package.
“While the EU and UK are currently largely aligned, it is clear […] that the status quo will fall away at some stage”, according to a report by the European Scrutiny Committee in the House of Commons.
It states this is mainly due to the EU chemicals strategy, which will take forward a series of important changes to the EU chemicals regime.
The report considers it plausible that changes in chemicals regulation could have a material impact on trade and investment. This is an important aspect, as the level playing field mechanisms in the Brexit deal (e.g. rebalancing) require such a material impact to initiate legal action on a given standard divergence. To prevent legal proceedings, the two parties have to avoid significant regulatory divergence.
The Brexit deal could therefore become a factor in determining EU and UK chemicals policies. That is even more true for the UK, as the EU has been the first-mover on chemicals policies, with the publication of its Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability in October 2020. The UK has to keep pace to avoid opening a significant regulatory gap.
Northern Ireland would also have to follow many of the changes announced in the EU chemicals strategy, especially those relating to EU REACH (which Northern Ireland is obliged to implement under the Withdrawal Agreement). If the UK does not keep pace with EU developments, the House of Commons’ report says it might lead to a situation where a chemical is deemed safe in Great Britain, but unsafe in the EU and Northern Ireland.
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