Energy Efficiency Directive: latest developments

On 20 December 2011, the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) of the European Parliament voted on rapporteur Peter Liese’s (Group of the European People's Party [Christian Democrats], Germany) draft opinion on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED). Regarding the setting aside of allowances in relation to the EU Emission Trading Scheme, ENVI calls on the European Commission to set aside 1.4bn allowances. On the issue of carbon leakage, ENVI believes that industries with a high risk of carbon leakage should not be directly addressed by the EED. In addition,

ENVI calls for Member States to draft national strategies (including legislative, financial, and training measures) to reduce the energy consumption of the national existing building stock which take into account, amongst others, CO2 emissions from building materials, the energy consumption brought about by the manufacture of building materials, as well as promoting the use of renewable natural resources, such as wood, in construction work.

The vote in the Industry, Trade and Research Committee on rapporteur Claude Turmes’ (Group of the Greens/European Free Alliance, Luxembourg) draft report on the EED has been postponed until 28 February 2012.

Regarding the setting aside of allowances, CEMBUREAU stresses that for the EU Emission Trading Scheme to play its role, EU institutions should refrain from undue intervention in the market mechanisms. CEMBUREAU also believes that the energy audits proposed should be allowed to be carried out by “in-house” experts, provided that they are accredited, qualified and not directly engaged in the activity audited. In relation to the development of national energy efficiency plans, the Association stresses that the risk of carbon leakage must be taken into account. In addition, whilst deep or staged deep renovation can contribute to reducing emissions from buildings, rebuilding also has a very important role to play. Finally, the EED should not introduce distortion of competition between construction materials and should take the whole life cycle perspective into account in the assessment of the energy efficiency of buildings, rather than assessment at the product level.

On 9 December 2011, the European Council called for an “early agreement on the proposal on energy efficiency, which should establish an ambitious and flexible framework in line with the 20% target for 2020 as agreed by the June 2010 European Council”.

More information: October 2011 Eurobrief Editorial - Peter Liese’s Opinion