An ambitious framework of minimum energy performance standards for Europe

Panel: 2. Policy innovations to ensure, scale and sustain action

Authors:
Louise Sunderland, RAP and Independent
Marion Santini, The Regulatory Assistance Project, Belgium

Abstract

To meet the EU’s 2030 climate target of a 55% emissions reduction, the building sector must achieve a 60% cut. To do this, we must increase the rate and depth of renovation. In response, the European Commission will propose mandatory minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) in a revision to the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) in 2021.

MEPS require existing buildings to meet a defined performance standard at a trigger point or date. Jurisdictions worldwide have adopted MEPS to serve different priorities, illustrating the flexibility of the policy tool. A review of these examples shows that different models of MEPS have been used for all building sectors:

• Single standard, for worst-performing buildings, e.g., for rented buildings in England and Wales, homes in France and offices in The Netherlands.

• Progressive standards, increasing over time, e.g., for rented homes in Scotland and non-domestic buildings in France.

• Deep renovation standard, e.g., proposed by the French Citizen’s Climate Convention.

• Trigger-point-only standard, e.g., Article 7 EPBD requires efficiency improvements at the trigger point of major renovation.

• Measures-based model, e.g., minimum insulation or heating system measures for homes in Australia, New Zealand, and Flanders, Belgium.

• Stock average model, e.g., standards in the U.S require large buildings below the median stock performance to make improvements.

• Renovation target model, e.g., Article 5 Energy Efficiency Directive requires annual renovation of 3% of the floor area of public buildings.

The new European framework of MEPS and increased financial and practical support for renovation should focus on five aims: to set out a roadmap for the building sector to reach climate neutrality by 2050 and trigger renovation towards net zero buildings; to send a strong signal to the supply chain to scale up this decade; to incentivise maximum renovations in compliance and beyond compliance with MEPS this decade; to deliver social benefits of renovating the worst-performing buildings this decade; and to increase the effectiveness of the existing renovation framework.

Aligned with these aims, the framework design must prioritise flexibility for Member States to implement nationally relevant policies, allow easy translation from the European requirement into clearly communicable local standards and be ambitious but enforceable.

More specifically, the European framework should:

Cover all buildings. Homes account for 75% of the floor area of the European stock. For MEPS to make a suitable contribution to climate goals and deliver significant social benefits, the standards should include the residential sector this decade. Non-domestic buildings are only a quarter of the stock but this sector contains individual buildings that are high energy users. An ambitious standard addressing this smaller sector could therefore also contribute to swift energy and carbon reductions.

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Use the energy performance certificate (EPC) framework. The EPC defines the standard for most of the European examples. The EPC was not designed as a compliance tool so to adapt the tool to this new function, the robustness of the assessment process must be improved, coverage increased and EPC databases made transparent. Due to lack of harmonisation of EPCs across Europe, setting a common EPC class standard for all the EU would be problematic. Defining a fleet target, to be achieved by nationally set MEPS, is an alternative approach.

Introduce firm dates for compliance. The European framework of MEPS should use firm dates for compliance rather than rely on trigger points. Transactional trigger points of sale and rent are not frequent enough to drive the scale of renovation needed. Reliance on trigger points also risks creating an underclass of buildings, as some buildings will not be sold or rented. The first dates for compliance may differ individual sectors but should be no later than in the late 2020s.

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