Brussels, 15 December 2021.
REHVA welcomes the EC proposal for the new revision of the EPBD that was released today by Executive Vice-President of the Commission Frans Timmermans and Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson. The out-of-schedule revision aims to accelerate efforts under the Renovation Wave to at least double the annual renovation rate by 2030 and shift towards decarbonized buildings.
The EPBD proposal was released as part of the winter package of Fit for 55. Vice-President Timmermans mentioned that the focus is on tackling the worst-performing buildings with the highest potential and most cost-effective renovations. This priority is reflected by the introduction of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) that require all EPC class G buildings to be renovated and upgraded to class F by 2027 and class E by 2030. Besides the acceleration of renovations, the EPBD proposal bans any financial incentives for fossil fuel boilers from 2027 onwards.
A major change is that the proposal introduces zero emission buildings instead of nearly zero energy buildings adding GHG emission criteria in the performance assessment. It also puts an increased focus on indoor air and climate quality by defining voluntary indicators to be included in EPCs and by extending the scope of inspections to ventilation systems beside heating and air conditioning with the same requirements.
“REHVA welcomes the EPBD proposal to boost high-quality deep energy renovation and to strengthen requirements for a healthy indoor air and climate quality” - said Anita Derjanecz, Managing Director of REHVA. “Moving towards measured performance and the access to building data is also an important new element, especially because the proposal mandates the installation of control and control devices of indoor air quality in zero emission buildings and existing ones where feasible. I hope that all these progressive requirements remain in the final directive after the trialogue and help the transition to an efficient, decarbonized and healthy building stock in Europe.”
Stakeholders can provide their feedback on the EPBD proposal in an open format text (max. 4000 characters) until 09 February 2022. After this process the European Parliament and the Council will negotiate the proposal in inter-institutional dialogues. The final adoption by the trialogue may last until of 2023.
Read the press release of the EC on the proposal release of the EPBD revision.
Read our policy briefing about the EPBD proposal in the REHVA Knowledge Hub soon!