[EEA06] The exemplary role of public buildings: What’s new in the EED recast?

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Date & Time

February 14, 2024; 10h00 - 11h00 CET

Speakers

• Jean-Sébastien Broc, IEECP
• Dimitris Athanasiou, IEECP
• Alan Ryan, SEAI (guest panellist)

Announcement

The EU Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) highlights the exemplary role of the public sector, and especially public buildings. The EED recast (adopted in 2023) reinforces these requirements, aiming at transforming existing public buildings in nearly zero-energy or zero-emission buildings, and extending the scope to all public buildings.

This webinar will briefly remind the main changes in the EU context and provide an overview of measures implemented by Member States to improve energy efficiency in public buildings. It will also discuss how these measures can play an exemplary role to trigger energy savings beyond public buildings.

Recordings

Presentation

Download the slides

Note: Slide 17 was updated after the webinar to include the number of measures in MURE about building regulations for services sector. This number includes measures related to mandatory provisions of the EPBD, i.e. mostly about minimum energy performance requirements (building codes), energy performance certificates, and mandatory inspection of heating and air-conditioning systems. These also include a few ones about feasibility of small-scale RES and very few ones on BACS.

Highlights

Key messages from the presentations

• The recasts of the EED and EPBD aim at being more comprehensive and more consistent with the long-term goal (i.e. achieving carbon neutrality).
• The public sector at all levels will have a key role in leading this new ambition.
• The new framework aims to increase the rate and depth of renovations of public buildings and improve monitoring and reporting.
• Results from previous years show that it is a challenge, but feasible.
• Various experiences among the European countries provide examples to go forward.

Some take-aways from the panel discussion

• Good results have been achieved already, but there is a strong need to upscale and exploit the huge savings potential.
• Upscaling implies committing more funding and human/administrative resources, which should be seen in view of the multiple benefits from improving public buildings.
• These multiple benefits are often what building users expect (before works) or appreciate (after works) the most. But it is still a challenge to assess them, to demonstrate their value to decision makers and investors.
• Providing visibility on funding is the best way to get public bodies engaged.
• Blending funding sources (EU/national/local and public/private) can be a way to address funding needs.

Further reading

• European Commission’s webpage on public buildings
• MURE database of policy measures
• Public presentations on measures for public buildings from the Concerted Action EED
• JRC analysis of Member States’ report on the achievement of their 2020 targets (see section 6.4 on Article 5 EED and public buildings)
• Commission Staff Working Document (SWD(2022) 375 final) on the Long-Term Renovation Strategies 2020 (see section 2.8 about public buildings)
• SEAI support programme for public bodies
• ...and many more links in the slide deck!

Downloads