CPEA Secretary General Ursula Hartenberger recently spoke at the European Sustainable Energy Week #EUSEW2024 in the session “How the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive is driving renovation for all”
Hosted by the Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), the session brought together those who negotiated the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) with stakeholders who will work on the practical aspects of its implementation.
As private interests and private finance will be key factors in the coming years, Ursula Hartenberger provided insights from CPEA members on how they see the EPBD responding to the needs of the private and financial sectors and what supporting mechanisms need to be put in place.
She emphasised the need for rapid development of national trajectories and for clarity and cross-border comparability of nearly zero-energy buildings (NZEBs)/zero emission buildings (ZEBs) and minimum energy performance (MEP) definitions. She also called for compatibility with key legislative initiatives on sustainable finance, in particular the EU taxonomy, and for the introduction of digital building logbooks and centralised energy performance certificate (EPC) databases across Europe.
The fellow panellists shared their experiences of existing policies and projects on the ground in terms of
encouraging the creation of one-stop shops and integrated renovation services
bringing together different actors (citizens, contractors and finance) to harvest the potential of data sharing
national implementation of the EPBD and the creation of public finance for citizens and businesses