The EU’s forthcoming revision of legislation for buildings and construction is a critical opportunity to create policy and investment certainty on how energy performance requirements will be supported by carbon performance rules, says BPIE. New research from the think tank shows that while some EU Member States have introduced comprehensive policy action to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and construction, this should now be coordinated and regulated at European level.
New research from the think tank BPIE shows that while some EU member states have introduced comprehensive policy action to reduce the carbon footprint of buildings and construction, there is a need for it to be coordinated and regulated at European level.
The European Union aims to be climate-neutral by 2050, requiring a fundamental transformation of the construction and building sectors. In its Renovation Wave strategy, the European Commission announced its intention to introduce a ‘2050 whole life-cycle performance roadmap’ to reduce carbon emissions from buildings’ by 2023.
Oliver Rapf, Executive Director of BPIE, said: “For new buildings built to the highest energy efficiency standards, the low operational energy demand means that embodied carbon becomes the most significant source of carbon emissions over the building’s lifetime.”
To address this ‘hidden’ carbon footprint, BPIE suggests a common European approach to whole-life carbon (WLC) emissions of the building stock.
Achieving a common EU approach requires intensified coordination across policy measures addressing and affecting the different stages of the construction value chain. BPIE finds that the introduction of a ‘2050 whole life-cycle performance roadmap’, scheduled for 2023, is out of sync with the current legislative review process.
Rapf said: “Policy action taken by a number of Member States demonstrate that whole-life carbon policies are possible and desirable. The European Commission should reflect this in its forthcoming proposals now in 2021 (for example of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive), to make sure that we don’t lose time in the fight against climate change.”
Read BPIE’s analysis:
BPIE whole-life carbon analysis and early responses from Member States
