The Paris Agreement goals require net-zero CO 2 emissions by mid-century. The European Commission in its recent proposal for climate and energy strategy for 2050 indicated the need for more intensified actions to substantially improve the energy performances of buildings. With the rate of new construction in Europe, the challenge is to increase both the pace and depth of building energy renovations. Several barriers inhibit the wide uptake of comprehensive energy renovations, including the inability or inertia to finance upfront costs of energy renovations. Despite various policies implemented to address some of these barriers, current investments in buildings remain at suboptimal levels. The paper reviews current financing practices for energy renovations and investigates some innovative instruments with a special focus on their applicability to residential buildings. In addition to "traditional" financial schemes such as subsidies, tax incentives, and loans, the paper assesses innovative financing schemes: On property tax and on-bill financing, energy efficiency mortgages, and energy efficiency feed-in tariffs. The paper also investigates the concept of one-stop shops for building renovations and crowdfunding. The paper offers an assessment of the characteristics, benefits, and challenges of each analyzed financing instrument and provides policy recommendations for their successful implementation. In general, as financing instruments involve different stakeholders and due to complex nature of the sector, there is no single solution to accelerate energy renovation investment in buildings. The emerging financial models offer the potential to address the long-standing barriers to investment in energy efficiency.
This article analyses the status and trends of the European Union (EU) residential energy consumption in light of the energy consumption targets set by the EU 2020 and 2030 energy and climate strategies. It assesses the energy efficiency progress from 2000 to 2016, using the official Eurostat data. In 2016, the residential energy consumption amounted to 25.71% of the EU’s final energy consumption, representing the second largest consuming sector after transport. Consumption-related data are discussed together with data on some main energy efficiency policies and energy consumption determinants, such as economic and population growth, weather conditions, and household and building characteristics. Indicators are identified to show the impact of specific determinants on energy consumption and a new indicator is proposed, drawing a closer link between energy trends and policy and technological changes in the sector. The analysis of these determinants highlights the complex dynamics behind the demand of energy in the residential sector. Decomposition analysis is carried out using the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index technique to provide a more complete picture of the impact of various determinants (population, wealth, intensity, and weather) on the latest EU-28 residential energy consumption trends. The article provides a better understanding of the EU residential energy consumption, its drivers, the impact of current policies, and recommendations on future policies.
Following the adoption of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) in 2012, the Member States of the European Union implemented various policies and measures to meet the Directive's requirements, including national energy efficiency targets for 2020. The progress made at national level is tracked through the Annual Reports provided by Member States to the Commission in accordance with the EED Article 24. To provide valuable insights of the actions taken by Member States towards increasing energy efficiency in various sectors of their economies, this paper reviews the assessment of the Annual Reports (AR) submitted since 2013 – the year in which the first reports were due – until the latest Annual Reports of 2018. Notably, the implementation status of key EED provisions such as Article 5 on the exemplary role of public bodies’ buildings and Article 7 on Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes (EEOS) is discussed, providing a historical view of the progress made from the inception of the various actions until now. The need of more efforts, in particular with the Article 5 implementation, is identified. The national contributions towards the EU 2020 target are also discussed, including an analysis of the latest energy consumption trends and reasons for which energy consumption remained stable or increased, as given by Member States in their reports. Lessons learned from the EED experience so far are drawn that provide valuable input for the successful implementation of the future requirements under the new Energy Union Governance.
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