Although EU Member States are planning to undertake significant energy renovation activities in their territories, national recovery and resilience plans (RRPs) lack both ambition in this area and the foresight to plan beyond 2026, according to a study by the think tank E3G published on Thursday 14 October at the request of the European Renovate Europecampaign.
“This study should be seen as a starting point for Member States to get their building stock on track for 2030 and 2050 by increasing the degree of renovation and planning ahead to create a sustainable renovation ecosystem (...) beyond 2026”, commented Caroline Simpson, Head of Renovate Europe.
Looking at the building elements in RRPs from 18 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain), the study reveals that these countries plan to invest a total of €39.9 billion in energy renovation, which is only 8.4% of the total financial envelope (€472 billion) foreseen for these countries under the ‘Recovery and Resilience Facility’ (RRF).
The analysis also shows a wide disparity between Member States. For example, while Greece plans to spend €384 per capita on energy renovation, Austria plans to spend only €11.
Ranging from just over 3% in Austria to over 16% in Belgium, the share of EU RRF funding allocated to energy renovation of buildings is on average 8%, in most cases achieving only 30% energy savings, the bare minimum required by the RRF guidelines, a fact lamented by Renovate Europe.
According to the study, investments are concentrated in the residential sector (58%), followed by the public sector (34%).
See the study: https://bit.ly/3j7Ld5U (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)