2.II.iii. Initiatives/plans to improve the existing building stock – OVERVIEW

The first Austrian National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP), developed by the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy together with the Austrian provinces, was first published in April 2014 according to Article 4 of Directive 2012/27/EU (Energy Efficiency Directive - EED), and updated in 2018. This plan describes the way towards increasing energy efficiency and standardising the energy efficiency regulations in Austria until 2020, and envisages the increase in demand for energy-efficient services, reduction of energy consumption and simultaneously fighting energy poverty while avoiding nuclear energy. Additionally, the government shall set a good example by speeding up the implementation of energy efficiency in public buildings.

The measures for the building sector focus on the following categories:

• subsidies for residential buildings (e.g., a renovation subsidy like the “Sanierungsscheck”⁶);
• subsidies for district heating (e.g., for the installation of a heat transfer station);
• operational and environmental subsidy schemes for companies in Austria (e.g., subsidies for PV installations);
• energy efficiency measures in building regulations (e.g., further development of the OIB Guideline 6).

Actions taken to combat climate change include a revision of energy premiums to encourage renovation works. The resources are concentrated on auditing, insulation and heating works for the benefit of all (households, businesses, communities and public authorities); setting up a programme to equip regional and communal public roofs with photovoltaic solar panels (SolarClick); strengthening the Energy Efficiency Assistance Programme for Public Buildings (NRClick); setting up a programme to support companies and organisations for benefitting energy use throughout society (Energy Pack); adopting tools to support the deployment of solar energy in Brussels, including the mechanism of green certificates, the implementation of freely available standard contracts, the reinforcement of the Brussels green loan, an online map of Brussels solar potential and more.

Based on all of these actions, the Brussels-Capital Region has laid a solid foundation for energy transition and has defined the building renovation strategy¹⁰, which is included in the Brussels-Capital Region's Climate Energy Plan 2030¹¹, in line with the Regional Air-Climate-Energy Plan. This strategy corresponds to the Region's contribution to the Belgian National Integrated Climate Energy Plan 2021-2030, adopted in October 2019.

As part of the implementation of the European Directive on Energy Efficiency (Article 4), the Flemish Government defined in March 2014 a first basic long-term vision for the renovation of the existing building stock and submitted this to the European Commission.

The Flemish strategy for the renovation of existing residential buildings was built upon the Energy Renovation Programme 2020, launched in 2007. The ambition of this programme was that by 2020, every citizen of the Flemish Region would live in an energy-efficient house with roof insulation, no single glazing and an efficient heating installation. The Energy Renovation Programme 2020 was completed with the strategy 'On the road to NZEB', supporting early adopters.

In order to increase the level of ambition from fragmented improvements towards deep renovations of all existing houses, the government decided to establish a multi-stakeholder partnership. Starting in December 2014, working groups of stakeholders together with public authorities prepared recommendations for a 'Renovation Pact', a long-term strategy for residential buildings. The definition of a long-term 2050 target for energy performance of Flemish houses was one of the many key features of this pact (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Visualisation of the ‘Renovation Pact’ strategy with long-term goals towards 2050.

For the renovation of public buildings (EED Article 5), the Flemish government has chosen the alternative approach. This requires a series of measures to be taken in public buildings with a total of energy savings equivalent to a deep renovation of the central government's building stock. A first calculation based on available data in 2013 has shown that 150 buildings with an estimated total usable floor area of 900,000 m² fall under this obligation. As a result, the Flemish Government has to realise 2.4 GWh of savings under the default approach. The first calculations with the alternative approach estimate that it is possible to save 28 GWh during the 2014-2020 period. The goal is that the public buildings that fall under EED Article 5 will, after renovation, improve their energy performance to at least the yellow zone of the EPC. Overall, this means an estimated energy saving of 10%.

The fourth Flemish Energy Efficiency Action Plan (EED Article 4) was submitted to the European Commission in April 2017 and contained in its annex the revised roadmap for the renovation of the Flemish building stock. The key points of the long-term residential renovation strategy were the definition of a long-term target for 2050, the development of a housing passport (launched end of 2018), an update of the energy performance certificate (launched in 2019) and the further implementation of the 2016 Energy Poverty Programme. For non-residential buildings, the main focus was on the exemplary role of public buildings as well as support mechanisms for schools and healthcare buildings.

The NZEB targets in the Walloon Region are closely linked to the planned objectives of the Walloon renovation strategy.

Although the NZEB definition of an existing building has not yet been fixed, the long-term objectives for renovating buildings implicitly include the NZEB targets. The building renovation strategy indeed sets the 2050 target of significantly improving the performance of residential units so that, on average, they will reach the EPC energy class A, whose threshold is set at 85 kWh/m².year, the level defined for new residential NZEB. The intention is to target an identical NZEB level for new and existing buildings.

Intermediate steps in 2020 and 2030 will verify progress and identify the necessary corrective actions for reaching these targets.

For non-residential buildings, the goal is to reach an energy-neutral building stock in 2050 for heating, sanitary hot water, cooling and lighting, which means that these buildings will produce as much energy as they consume.

To achieve its objectives, Wallonia plans to focus on deep renovations and develop tools such as a building passport and a renovation roadmap, enabling all renovation projects to be registered and guided to achieve the global energy refurbishment either in one or in several steps, with the NZEB level being the ultimate target.

Primarily, it will be a matter of utilising each opportunity for improvement (to the envelope or system) to place the building on a path towards the long-term NZEB objective, while at the same time giving priority to renovating the least efficient housing stock (levels G and F).

Concerning Article 5 of the EED, Wallonia has chosen to adopt an alternative approach to the required annual renovation of 3% of existing public buildings.

Wallonia decided to determine its target based on the pre-existing register of buildings’ energy performance, with data collected by different institutions in the central government, which can then be compared to the cost-optimal energy performance. This sets the goal of primary energy savings, corresponding to the required 3% of annual savings that must be achieved by each official institution that must comply with this EED requirement (for 2018 results, cf. Table 4).

Table 4. 2018 results for Walloon government buildings.

The measures that Wallonia plans to take in order to achieve its energy savings objectives are those recommended by the existing Walloon energy audits⁷.

The National Plan for Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings sets out the annual intermediate targets applicable for transforming refurbished public buildings owned by public authorities into NZEB (Table 3). These targets include the estimated cumulative figures of end-use energy savings and emission reductions. Public sector buildings are being used as pilot projects to encourage improvements in the existing building stock.

Table 3: National targets for transforming refurbished public buildings into NZEB by 2020.

The “National Long-term Programme for Mobilising Investments in the Implementation of Measures for Improving the Energy Performance of Buildings” is part of the NEEAP.

The Energy Efficiency Act in force provides for the adoption of:

• a long-term national programme to encourage investments in implementing measures to enhance the energy performance of the public and private national residential and commercial building stock;

• a national plan for improving the energy performance of heated and/or cooled state-owned buildings occupied by the state administration.

These plans and programmes are included as part of the NEEAP and are outlined below.

The “Long-term national programme to encourage investments in implementing measures to enhance the energy performance of the public and private national residential and commercial building stock 2016 - 2020” contains:

• an overview of the national building stock;

• the definition of cost-effective approaches to improving the energy performance of buildings, relevant to the building type and climatic zone;

• policies and measures to stimulate cost-effective deep improvement of the energy performance of buildings, including staged renovations;

• setting up a financial framework to guide investment decisions of investors, the construction industry and financial intermediaries;

• a forecast of the expected energy savings.

In addition to the above points, the “National Plan for improving the energy performance of heated and/or cooled state-owned buildings occupied by the state administration 2016 - 2020” contains the following point as well:

• a prioritised list of the buildings that, on 1 January of the relevant year, do not meet the minimum energy performance requirements.

To help reach the national energy efficiency target, at least 5% of the total floor area over 250 m² shall be renovated annually in all buildings which on 1 January of each year do not meet the minimum energy performance requirements.

Case Study

Figure 1. Office building in Žminj

The national definition of NZEB is the same for both new and renovated buildings. As a result, achieving NZEB standards in existing buildings can be difficult in many cases, specifically when fulfilling the share of RES and the requirement for mechanical resistance and stability of the construction related to intense seismic activity according to Eurocode regulations. The main obstacles for the renovation of the national building stock into NZEB are due to financial constraints, with long periods of return on investment, different priorities by stakeholders, lengthy and complex public tenders for funding, but also the lack of information and motivation for investors, the public and stakeholders.

According to the Long-Term Strategy for Mobilising Investment in the Renovation of the National Building Stock of the Republic of Croatia⁴, in order to achieve targets and indicators for the period up to 2050, various measures are envisaged. These include developing renovation techniques (e.g., in relation to the type of material from which a building is built, or specifically for the renovation of historic buildings and buildings of cultural significance), training workers and certifying contracting companies.

Ninety-one per cent (91%) of the building stock in Cyprus was built before the implementation of minimum energy performance requirements. Hence, accelerating the renovation rate is at the epicentre of efforts to achieve the energy and climate goals of 2030 and 2050. Building renovation is supported from a series of policy measures that include regulations and financial incentives. The realistic scenario is that an annual rate of 1% could be renovated by 2030. For this period, 550 M € are expected to be channelled into home renovation and 335 M € for renovating the tertiary sector. However, in order to decarbonise the building stock by 2050, the renovation rate has to be tripled. For that to happen, policy measures have to be revised or strengthened.

For public buildings, in April 2016, by decision of the Cabinet of Ministers, the Commission for the Energy Performance of Buildings of the Central Government Authorities was established. It consists of the relevant departments of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Public Works, which are responsible for public buildings and the MECI. The committee, as part of its mission, seeks to upgrade the energy efficiency of buildings owned and used by the central government, in order to implement the obligations of Article 5 of Directive 2012/27/EU, as well as to propose measures for promoting NZEB for public buildings in the best economic and technical way. For the renovation of public buildings, 20 M € has been secured from the EU structural funds of the 2014 – 2020 period. The committee is currently working on a renovation plan up to 2030.

The Czech Republic prepared the Renovation Strategy of Buildings⁴ in line with article 4 of Directive 2012/27/EU. The goals of this strategy were: to create new jobs, especially in small- and medium-sized companies across the territory; to increase living comfort in buildings; to create higher disposable resources for households, institutions & businesses, making non-energy related goods & services more accessible; and to introduce energy savings that would reduce the use of fossil fuels, leading to a reduction in local pollution and greenhouse gas emissions and a rise in energy security. As a part of this strategy, there were additional initiatives and actions for existing building stock improvements. This strategy is also a founding stone for the Long-Term Renovation Strategy that has been prepared in line with the EPBD as amended by Directive 2018/844/EU.

The main focus of the strategy prepared under Article 4 of the EED was on economic measures. The Czech Republic has more than a decade of experience with programmes that help different property owner groups achieve energy savings for their building operations by way of reconstructions, upgrading technical building systems to highly efficient ones, etc. National programmes include the New Green Investment scheme, the Panel Programme and the EFEKT Programme (see sections 2.II.v and vi). The Czech Republic also uses financial tools from EU funds such as the Operational Programme Environment, the Operational Programme Enterprise and Innovation for Competitiveness, and the Integrated Regional Operational Programme. Other introduced measures include the Energy Performance Contracting, legislative measures (e.g., higher credibility of the EPC), consultancy guaranteed by the State, raising of public awareness, training of experts in the field of construction and energy, R&D, etc. 

The government has developed a comprehensive strategy for the energy upgrading of the existing building stock. The implementation of the initiative started in 2014, including the analysis of the energy requirements for the BR2015. The current legislation is now BR2018, which keeps the initial energy requirements and further improves some aspects of the legislation. Additional improvements are also implemented through the 'Energy Efficiency in State Institutions (Cirkulære om energieffektivisering i statens institutioner)' legislation and the Danish 'Energy Efficiency in Public Buildings' legislation which both implement a national initiative to reduce energy consumption.

The requirements for conversion may be met through component requirements mentioned in Table 2 or through compliance with the energy performance frameworks for existing buildings corresponding to the calculation for new buildings. The use of the energy framework mentioned in section 2.II.i for existing buildings is a voluntary option for owners that engage in deep energy renovation projects. This method is intended to increase the number of NZEB, as the owner has the possibility to look at the buildings' energy performance in a more holistic way.

Denmark is via national legislation committed to reduce the energy consumption in buildings owned and used by the government by 14% within the 2006-2020 period. This legislation aims to improve the energy efficiency of public buildings. According to EED article 5, Denmark is also committed to acquire energy savings equivalent to 34.399 MWh in the 2014-2020 period, corresponding to an energy reduction of 10.5%.  EED article 5 does not regulate the same as the national legislation; EED article 5 only affects buildings that are owned and used by the government, whereas the national legislation affects all governmental buildings not covered by the EED. Article 5 is implemented via the alternative approach described in the provision.

Estonia has not set a separate definition for NZEB for existing buildings. At the moment, there are no national plans for renovating the existing building stock towards NZEB standards. Renovation of residential buildings is mainly guided through renovation grants that require major renovation or achievement of new building energy efficiency levels. 

The feasibility of measures to improve the energy efficiency of an existing building are assessed based on technical, operational and financial considerations. Energy efficiency improvements can be done using three alternative ways (as shown in Figure 2):

1. energy efficiency requirements for each building element;
2. energy consumption requirements for a building by building type; or
3. E-value requirements of a building by building type.

In the long term, these three options lead to the same overall energy savings. An example of the energy efficiency requirements for each building element is depicted in Table 5.

Table 5: Example of minimum energy requirements by building element, for energy efficiency improvements in a late 1970s building.

The Finnish national strategy on renovation of buildings, based on Article 4 of Directive 2012/27/EU (EED), was reviewed in line with Directive 2018/844/EU. It focuses less on developing a set of requirements and instead seeks ways to initiate energy efficiency improvements in public and private residential and commercial buildings, to be implemented during both planned and corrective maintenance. This involves innovative means related to decision making, services, and financing of renovations, which are initiated through communication measures, as well as training and improving the know-how of building professionals.

Finland has chosen to implement voluntary measures instead of relying on the 3% renovation requirement set in Article 5 of the EED. These alternative measures are calculated to achieve similar savings as the set requirement. The types of measures implemented include projects for reducing tenant electricity use, setting premiums/sanctions in contracts with building management and service companies, energy efficiency improvements as part of routine building maintenance, support and information for building users to improve energy efficiency, energy efficiency measures included in renovation projects (set in the building code, see Figure 2), as well as improving space efficiency in buildings owned and used by the government. Voluntary measures also include the voluntary energy efficiency agreement schemes for the property sector and municipalities. Energy efficiency agreements have no direct link to the EPBD, but they contain many measures that enhance the energy efficiency of buildings, e.g., energy audits and consumption monitoring.

Although regulations for the renovation of existing buildings are quite ambitious, they are still below NZEB requirements, so that renovated buildings do not systematically reach the NZEB level. The French Government has therefore developed several quality seals in order to encourage owners to go beyond the regulation requirements.

For existing residential buildings there are two quality seals: ‘High Performance Energy 2009’ (HPE 2009), demanding a level of 150 kWh/m².year, and ‘Low Energy Consumption Renovation 2009’ (BBCR 2009), demanding a level of 80 kWh/m².year. These levels are expressed in primary energy. They are also modulated with climatic zones and altitude:

C_epmax = 80 x (a+b).

where ’a’ is a coefficient representing the climatic zone:

and ‘b’ is a coefficient representing the altitude:

For existing non-residential buildings there is only one quality seal, also called ‘Low Energy Consumption Renovation 2009’ (BBCR 2009). It certifies that the consumption of energy of the renovated building is at least 40% less than the reference building (the same building, with specified envelope and systems).

By the end of 2016, 56,000 residential buildings and about 1.35 million renovated m² of non-residential buildings were given the ‘Low Energy Consumption Renovation 2009’ quality seal.

Regarding non-residential buildings, a charter⁸ has been signed by the French Government and major companies, showing a commitment for energy efficiency by everyone involved.

To encourage professionals to build-up their skills, there is some financial support to owners whose renovations are made by certified workers. This certification, called RGE⁹ (standing for recognised environmental guarantor), proves that workers are fully qualified to carry out renovation works.

In order to implement Article 5 of the EED, France has chosen an alternative option. Indeed, in the ‘Grenelle de l’ Environnement’ laws (voted in 2009 and 2010), there is a goal for a 40% primary energy reduction by 2020 for all the buildings owned by the French Government. Based on the results of energy audits on a representative sample of the relevant building stock, this would represent 10,131 GWh (primary energy) saved. In comparison, the 3% renovation proposed in the EED would lead to only 2,477 GWh (primary energy) saved.

Three types of action will help to reach this ambitious goal:

• renovation carried out by French authorities;
• a better use of the buildings;
• selling the unused buildings in order to have them renovated by a private landlord.

The energy strategy of the Federal Government of Germany aims for an energy-neutral building stock by 2050¹⁹. To reach that goal, the non-renewable primary energy demand of the building stock needs to be reduced by 80%. The three instruments considered to be used in that strategy are regulatory law and financial incentives as well as information and advice.

Whenever relevant refurbishment is done, the minimum requirements given by the Energy Saving Ordinance have to be met. The requirements of the ordinance can be fulfilled in two ways:

• by meeting specific energy performance requirements for building elements and installations;
• by attaining 140% of the performance requirements for a new building (calculated using the 2014 reference building status).

Due to a number of policies that promote energy efficiency and provide financial support, a lot of buildings are retrofitted to a higher energy performance level than required. Programmes like the KfW programme for residential and non-residential buildings, and the incentives programme for heating with RES (MAP)²¹ contribute to the goal of an energy-neutral building stock. In the past 15 years, for example, the KfW has provided financial support for the retrofitting and construction of four million residential housing units. This represents in total approximately 10% of the German building stock.

Germany has chosen an alternative approach to renovating 3% of the total floor area of buildings owned and occupied by its central government as required by Article 5 (6) EED. Therefore, cost-efficient measures are carried out including extensive retrofitting and measures to change user behaviour. The national energetic retrofitting schedule for federal property (Sanierungsfahrplan Bundesliegenschaften (ESB)) was established in 2011. To reach the 3% goal, federal government buildings need to get refurbished to an energy quality as required by the Energy Saving Ordinance.

The definition of NZEB in existing buildings has been set in Law 4122/2013 and its application is determined in the national NZEB study issued in December 2018 (Ministerial Decision YPEN/DEPEA/85251/242, GoG B’ 5447/5.12.2018). The study also establishes plans to renovate the existing building stock to become NZEB.

In December 2019, the YPEN submitted the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP). In the area of energy efficiency improvements, renovation of the national building stock (tertiary and residential) is set as one of the twelve different policy priorities. According to the NECP, renovation goals are set for the existing building stock and it is considered necessary to establish a central quantitative objective for the renovation and replacement of residential buildings with new nearly zero-energy buildings, which could in aggregate amount to 12-15% of all residential buildings by 2030. The annual objective is to have an average of 60,000 buildings or building units upgraded in terms of energy and/or replaced with new more energy-efficient ones.

Also, according to the NECP, it is important to optimally integrate RES technologies for heating and cooling purposes in the building sector, in particular to the extent that all new buildings are to be nearly zero-energy buildings from 2021 onwards.

Finally, with the transposition of Directive 844/2018 into national legislation, which is expected in the first trimester of 2020, there will be an obligation to establish a long-term renovation strategy, to support the renovation of the national stock of residential and non-residential buildings, both public and private, into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050, facilitating the cost-effective transformation of existing buildings into nearly zero-energy buildings.

The renovation target for residential buildings is to reach a 5% renovation rate by the end of the 2021-2030 period. This can reduce the total energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of residential buildings by approximately 30%. Significant results have already been achieved during the last 4 years in the public buildings sector and will continue. The goal is to maintain a stable renovation rate of 3% for public buildings in the period 2021-2030. If this is achieved gradually, the total energy consumption of public buildings as well as CO₂ emissions can be reduced by 12-13%.

The National Energy & Climate Plan 2021-2030³ defines a roadmap to a net zero carbon energy systems objective by 2050. In terms of energy efficiency, a number of actions across various sectors will contribute to achievement of Ireland’s national energy efficiency contribution. Further improving energy efficiency is central to our transition to a low carbon economy. Using less energy in a more flexible way is the most cost-effective and accessible way we can tackle climate disruption. Ireland is committed to applying the energy efficiency first principle to all proposals, decisions and investments flowing from this Plan. This Plan commits to a wide range of ambitious and far-reaching policies and measures aimed at improving our energy efficiency.

• All new dwellings are built to NZEB standard from 1 November 2019.
• Setting stricter requirements for new buildings and substantial refurbishments. Building a supply chain and a model for aggregation where home retrofits are grouped together.
• 500,000 homes retrofitted to a BER of B2 or cost-optimal equivalent by 2030.
• Public sector buildings to have a BER of B by 2030.
• One third of commercial (including mixed use) buildings to have a BER of B (or carbon equivalent gains) by 2030.
• 600,000 heat pumps installed over the period 2021-2030.
• Effectively ban the installation of oil boilers from 2022 and the installation of gas boilers from 2025 in all new dwellings through the introduction of new regulatory standards for home heating systems. Progressively phase out oil and gas boilers in existing dwellings through a combination of incentives, information and regulatory measures.
• Ensure that a suitable policy framework is in place to support district heating.
• A 50% energy efficiency target for the Public Sector by 2030.
• Scale-up and improve the Sustainable Energy Communities and Better Energy Communities (BEC) programme and enlist a wider range of organisations to anchor its collective approach.
• Develop the necessary supply chain, including working with Regional Skills Fora to train skilled workers.

Given the significant size of the existing public building stock and the low rate of new constructions, efforts are being concentrated on increasing energy efficiency in existing buildings. First-level major renovations impose stringent and challenging limits for achieving the 'minimum requirements' prescribed by the Decree of 26.06.2015.  

The NECP scenario foresees a saving of 0.33 Mtoe/year of final energy for the residential sector and of 0.24 Mtoe/year of final energy for the tertiary sector from 2020 to 2030.

In order to increase the annual renovation rate identified by the draft of the recent Long-Term Renovation Strategy (LTRS) to achieve the NECP objectives, numerous initiatives have already been put in place and others are in the pipeline.

The most important new initiative, included in the new EPBD transposition, is the establishment of the National Platform (NP) of the buildings energy performance, which is a tool to promote knowledge of the national existing building stock, its size, consumption and energy performance, and to provide personalised information on the energy performance of buildings to citizens, enterprises and public administrations.

The existing measures include, among others: strengthening tax deductions by introducing the Superbonus 110% programme; strengthening the White Certificates mechanism; and establishing the Decree 28/2012 incentivising scheme, which allows for interventions in the private residential building stock and in that owned by the public administration, all of them further described in section 2.II.v.

Among the existing policies, the Action Plan on Green Public Procurement (PAN GPP) appears to be an initiative of interest for its combined action on environmental and energy efficiency aspects. In particular, the Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM) for constructions provide that, for the renovation/maintenance projects of existing buildings, an energy audit must be conducted or acquired, to identify the energy performance of the building and the actions to be taken for the reduction of its energy needs. On the other hand, as regards the first-level major renovation interventions, projects must ensure that the overall energy needs of the building are met by renewable energy systems or with alternative high efficiency systems.

In 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development started a project called ‘Low Energy Buildings’ (LEB) within the Latvian governmental programme of ‘Climate Change Financial Instrument (CCFI)'¹⁰. The LEB project supported the construction of new buildings and the reconstruction of existing ones to achieve target values. Within the project, 14 different pilot projects were carried out for different building types. However, the projects were not cost-efficient for the owners without an external source of financing (grants). Based on these results, minimum energy performance requirements are based on cost-optimal values only, which means that the NZEB level for existing buildings is not mandatory.

In the future, Latvia must contribute to common EU targets, e.g., a long-term 2050 goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80-95% compared to 1990. According to the ‘Clean Energy for all Europeans’ package of amendments to the EPBD, Latvia will indicate a target to decarbonise its national building stock. This target will be included in Latvia’s next Long-Term Renovation Strategy (the next update of the strategy will be made in 2020).

In 2017 and 2018, together with the relevant actors in the construction sector, Luxembourg organised multiple workshops to identify the main barriers and challenges to improving the existing building stock. As part of this initiative, Luxembourg’s energy renovation strategy was developed. The various themes of these workshops focused on finding ways to remove natural architectural constraints as well as regulatory and financial barriers, motivating building owners to refurbish and encouraging refurbishment as an opportunity for the construction sector in Luxembourg. These workshops concluded that financially supporting energy refurbishment programmes, providing information and energy advice and raising awareness play an important role in this area. As described above, Luxembourg tries to promote major renovations through aid schemes that are regularly updated. Deep renovations are promoted where EPCs have to be issued before and after refurbishment. In relation to the obtained energy class after refurbishment, a bonus is granted in addition to the previously received aid. The better the energy class after refurbishment, the higher the bonus.

myenergy, the national body for information and advice in the fields of energy efficiency and renewable energy, provides support to all sectors with respect to building refurbishment. Various market analyses performed by myenergy have identified barriers to information that affect the public’s perceptions and the motivations of building owners to finance renovations. Significant efforts have been made to remove these barriers by creating national information points all over the country. The information points are organised by myenergy in cooperation with the municipalities.

In recent years, Luxembourg has introduced several measures for promoting the energy refurbishment of buildings. These range from regulatory measures to financial incentives, an increase in information and advisory measures and improvements to education and training.

RGD 2007 and RGD 2010 define minimum requirements for extensions or renovations of existing building elements. Furthermore, besides the subsidy programme PRIMe-House, an energy efficiency obligation scheme (EEOS) has been applied since January 2015. The EEOS obliges all electricity and gas suppliers (obligated parties) to achieve energy savings among energy end-users. The obligated parties have to deploy efforts (financial and non-financial incentives) that result in customers gaining access to information on energy efficiency, encouraging them to implement energy efficiency measures. Further initiatives and plans to improve the existing building stock are described in section 2.II.iv.

Studies have shown that in existing buildings and housing in particular, significant energy performance improvements are possible through the installation of RES and the replacement of technical building systems. With this in mind, a number of financial incentives and favourable feed-in tariffs were introduced in order to specifically target existing buildings. Such incentives were aimed at supporting current building owners and generated considerable participation. Over the period of 2016-2020, 55 million € was invested in the installation of solar renewables, heat pump water heaters, solar water heaters and the improvement of the thermal envelope. The housing building stock in Malta consists of a large number of single-family units with a substantial potential for the installation of RES in the form of solar systems. A sample of existing housing units which have undergone major renovations showed that it is not only possible to achieve the minimum requirements for overall energy performance of new housing units with the introduction of such RES technologies, but in most cases it is also possible to achieve NZEB level, which for semi-detached and detached housing units is equivalent to 55kWh/m² (NZEB plan for Buildings in Malta, 2015; https://epc.gov.mt/legislation).

Public buildings in Malta significantly vary in size, building characteristics and age as well as energy use A process has been initiated whereby the building stock occupied by the government is being renovated at an accelerated pace. This process is intended to improve the capacity of the workforce and industry in general to deliver the scope of the Long-Term Renovation Strategy.

Dutch policy comprises a wide range of measures, with a mix of thematic and target group-oriented instruments. There are both measures that promote cost-effective energy-saving interventions in buildings in the short term and measures that enable in-depth renovation of buildings (that require larger investments). There are existing measures that continue and new measures from the Climate Agreement that accelerate the approach towards a low-carbon built environment. The policy commitment for this acceleration is a CO₂ emission reduction, in which the CO₂ target is paramount, and the instruments and measures are adjusted when necessary. All sectors within the built environment must become greener in order to contribute to the desired emissions reduction.

The thematic approaches are: 

A neighbourhood-oriented approach to the built environment

The built environment is not uniform. Sustainability solutions must match the local situation and, for example, use locally available renewable energy sources. This is best achieved with local management, within a regional and national framework. The Dutch approach therefore consists of:

• national policy;
• 30 Regional Energy Strategies that elaborate supply and demand for a sustainable energy supply;
• municipal energy visions with district-oriented heat plans that elaborate per district what the sustainable energy supply for the built environment will look like.

These three elements are supported by a statutory amendment, as a result of which, homes and neighbourhoods are no longer connected to natural gas, and testing grounds for natural gas-free neighbourhoods, in which concepts for sustainable heating based on renewable energy sources (without natural gas) are elaborated.

Tax instruments

These instruments directly support investments in energy savings. Firstly, there are general tax instruments, such as the energy tax on electricity and gas, the energy investment allowance (EIA), the environmental investment allowance (MIA) and the Random Depreciation of Environmental Investments (Vamil). All these instruments ensure that energy savings become more cost-efficient and investments yield better returns. Secondly, there are specific tax instruments, such as the VAT refund and the netting scheme for solar panels, and the energy tax exemption for renewable energy generated by cooperatives.

Innovation tools and training

Two aspects are essential to create a construction industry that can efficiently and effectively renovate the building stock, i.e., innovation and training of professionals. That is why innovation is promoted by a Knowledge and Innovation Platform for Social Real Estate, the digital system for the built environment, the Integrated Knowledge and Innovation Agenda for the Climate Agreement (IKIA) and the multi-year mission-driven innovation programmes. Finally, the Sustainable Heat and Cold Built Environment Programme focuses on tackling a tough subproblem: supplying heat and cold to buildings from sustainable sources.

 Education and training of construction professionals is also a focus point, including targeted training for the construction of decentralised sustainable heating and cooling techniques. The Declaration of Intent on the Labour Market and Training in the Neighbourhood Approach is aimed at preparing future construction professionals for in-depth renovations; the Declaration of Intent ‘People make the transition’ offers a similar framework for current professionals. Finally, the Green Deal for the Development of Decentralised Sustainable Heating and Cooling Technologies marks important steps in the training of professionals who can design, build and maintain the climate systems of the future.

The approaches per sub-sector are:

Private homes

From 1 January 2021, the Building Decree requires newly-built homes (and utility buildings) to meet the requirements for Nearly Zero-Energy Buildings (BENG). The maximum energy requirement and the maximum primary fossil fuel energy consumption are then expressed in kWh/m².year. A minimum share of renewable energy must also be applied.

Although these requirements do not have a direct effect on renovation, they do ensure a wider introduction of low-carbon and carbon-free techniques that can subsequently also be applied to existing buildings. Requirements for the energy performance of building parts (such as walls, roofs and windows) and of technical building systems (such as heating installations) improve existing homes at natural moments, such as sales and renovation. Sustainability standards per home type and targets for the degree of insulation help private owners to improve their homes and to achieve the desired CO₂ emissions reduction.

Broadening of the mortgage standard, specifically for home improvement aimed at CO₂ emissions reduction, a heat fund, building-related financing and energy-saving and sustainability loans, will help private owners investing in sustainability. Other measures reduce the costs of investments and help private owners to take steps towards a CO₂-neutral home. Examples are the Subsidy for Energy Saving Private Home (SEEH), the Investment Subsidy for Sustainable Energy (iSDE), the Regulation on Reduction in Energy Consumption (RRE) and the reduced VAT rate for home improvement.

‘Verbeter je huis’ (Improve your home)

The online tool ‘Verbeter je huis’ (www.verbeterjehuis.nl) supports house owners (and house owner associations) upon improving the energy efficiency of their house. It offers a user-friendly energy calculation (based on the ‘Energy Saving Explorer’-calculation tool), that can take the user behaviour of the occupants into account, offers tailored advice on energy efficiency measures and a step-by-step approach to make the house ready to disconnect from the natural gas grid. In addition, it provides information about suppliers and companies that can apply the measures and also information on how to finance the measures (with links to subsidies and banks offering attractive ‘green’ mortgages). 

Rental housing

The rental sector also benefits from a wide range of specific instruments. Building decision requirements promote the improvement of rental properties at specific triggering moments in the life span of a building, just like private homes. The rental sector in the Netherlands is dominated by social rent (via 320 housing associations with approximately 2.2 million housing units, CBS 2019), which comprises approximately 67% of the rental market for housing.

The social rental sector is playing a pioneering role on the road to natural gas-free and CO₂-free homes. In addition to instruments that apply to the entire sector, various instruments focus specifically on the social rental sector. Specific efforts are being made to convert social houses from natural gas connections to district heat connections. Efforts are also being made to partially pass on the cost of energy efficiency investments to tenants, thereby bridging the ‘split incentive’ between investor and user. An umbrella covenant with the social housing associations offers the social rental sector a framework for improving the entire stock of social rental housing in the longer term. Various incentives, including the energy performance fee, the iSDE and the Reduction of Landlord Levy Sustainability Scheme, provide additional investments.

The ‘Startmotor’ programme stimulates the large-scale, in-depth sustainable renovation of social housing. The ‘Startmotor’ aims to achieve 20% to 40% integral cost reduction (TCO) compared to the current cost level by 2030 - through joint standardisation, time-spread demand bundling and innovation. The ‘Renovation Accelerator’¹⁰ is an important part of the ’Startmotor’ in the Climate Agreement. The ‘Startmotor’ aims to make 100,000 homes natural gas-free or natural gas-free-ready between 2019 and 2023. The ‘Renovation Accelerator’ contributes to these objectives by accelerating upscaling of energy renovations at lower integral costs. In addition, the ‘Renovation Accelerator’ strives to achieve more innovation and higher productivity in the construction sector. Procurement cooperation, chain cooperation, standardisation, predictable distribution of demand over time and industrialisation are key concepts in this. This means that the ‘Renovation Accelerator’ not only occupies a key position within the Climate Agreement, but also serves a broader social and sectoral interest.

Finally, the mandatory standard for rental homes, which applies to all rental homes, ensures that they consume less energy and emit less CO₂ as a ‘stick behind the door’. Lower energy consumption also makes an important contribution to preventing energy poverty.

Non-residential buildings

Non-residential buildings form a diverse group. This includes offices and schools, but also many commercial buildings with a craft or industrial function. There is also a wide range of instruments for this sub-sector. These are often focused on a sub-segment in order to match the specific needs for a specific type of building. There are, for example, sectoral roadmaps that indicate the road to CO₂ neutrality per sub-segment. These roadmaps are developed in close connection with those directly involved, in order to match their preferences and possibilities as much as possible.

From 2023, offices must meet a minimum energy performance (Energy Label C). Many companies and institutions also have to comply with various energy and environmental measures based on the Environmental Management Act. For example, they have an energy-saving obligation, elaborated in lists of Recognised Measures, whereby they must implement all measures with a payback period of up to five years. An obligation to provide information ensures that enforcers can effectively monitor compliance and closely monitor the energy savings of utility buildings. Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) audits and the inspection of heating and air-conditioning systems give building owners insight into available cost-effective investments. The obligation to install an automation and control system ensures that the last buildings will also apply this energy-saving technology. Finally, the iSDE subsidy scheme supports investments in specific sustainable energy technologies, in addition to various generic tax instruments.

Social real estate (sub-segment)

The national government has a pioneering role, which is reflected in the roadmap of the Central Government Real Estate Agency. This has been developed to ensure that, by means of planned investments, government buildings become sustainable more quickly, and that they become CO₂-free with technical and management measures.

This concerns buildings with a public function such as education, sports, culture, welfare, social care and / or medical care. These sectors are committed to drawing up a roadmap in which they describe their own contribution to an energy-neutral built environment in 2050. There will be roadmaps for the Central Government Real Estate Agency (Rijksvastgoedbedrijf RVB), the Association of Dutch Municipalities, the Interprovincial Consultation, the Police, for primary, secondary, higher professional and scientific education, for sports and care facilities, and for monuments. The national government plays a pioneering role in order to be a driver and example for others. In this way, the Netherlands also fulfils the obligation to renovate 3% of the building stock of the central government every year.

As for new buildings, the concept of NZEB in a Norwegian context has not yet been defined. The requirements in force from 2017 are considered as a step towards NZEB requirements, which are scheduled for 2021. There are also financial and technical support schemes available through a government-financed agency as described below.

Plans for renovating the existing building stock towards NZEB are not applicable in Norway. However, through Enova (www.enova.no), grants are given to renovation projects, capacity building, etc. Many research projects are also working towards cost-efficient renovation methods. In 2017, the Parliament approved a proposal to prohibit the use of fossil oil for heating in all buildings from January 2020.

Directive 2012/27/EU (EED) has not yet been implemented in Norway, and thus national renovation plans are not applicable. However, Norway decided to include this directive in the EEA Agreement with necessary adaptations.

The national plan sets out actions for promoting the use of RES in buildings and the need to improve the technical condition of the existing building stock. It identifies aspects of a comprehensive approach to energy efficiency, and its main objective is to achieve the provisions of EPBD Article 9, §1.

The national plan includes, among other topics, the definition of buildings with low energy consumption and their specific characteristics, as well as governmental actions to promote buildings with low energy consumption. It focuses on the design, construction and reconstruction of buildings to ensure energy efficiency and to increase the share of energy from RES in both new and existing buildings (combined with programmes for thermal modernisation and the promotion of a low-emission economy). The national plan sets a timeline for achieving these goals, which corresponds to EPBD Article 9, §3.

Support initiatives include:

• projects implemented from European Funds in Poland under the Multi-annual Financial Framework 2014-2020;
• projects implemented in 2013-2019 through the European Economic Area Financial Mechanism and the Norwegian Financial Mechanism;
• the Thermo-modernisation Fund and Maintenance programme;
• the Thermo-modernisation bonus (based on preliminary information on the scale of the reduction supplemented with estimates on the structure of supported investments based on other support programmes);
• support programmes for low-emission investments in the construction sector implemented by the National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFOŚiGW), including Clean Air.

Increasing the scale and depth of the renovation of buildings in Poland will also require the additional mobilisation of funds. In 2014-2019, approximately PLN 14.7 billion public funds allowed for the implementation of investments worth approximately PLN 22.8 billion. For most of the period, the key area of financing concerned investments in public buildings supported by EU funds, complemented by projects for the renovation of multi-family buildings financed from both national and EU funds. In 2019, however, thanks to the introduction of the thermo-modernisation bonus and the launch of the 'Clean Air' Programme, there was a rapid increase in support for investments in the modernisation of single-family buildings. Efforts to further increase the mobilisation of private funds should be enhanced in the coming years, possibly supported by activities promoting the use of the Energy Service Companies / Private Public Partnership formula, implementing the concept of one-stop shops and activities enabling the aggregation of projects.

Building renovation has been a government priority since the transposition of the recast EPBD, which came into force in 2013. In order to promote renovations, the new legislation allowed a certain degree of flexibility in respect to relevant requirements so that, according to the building characteristics, different cost-optimal solutions could be considered. On top of that, a strategy was submitted which plans to boost the rate of retrofitting and stimulate the economy. This strategy was based on different topics that range from simplifying mechanisms and facilitating necessary changes in the existing building sector to possibly using national and European sources for financing.

Regarding public buildings, an Energy Efficiency Programme for Public Administration (ECO.AP⁹) was launched, back in 2011. This programme aimed to achieve a 30% improvement in energy efficiency in public services and the various bodies of public administration by 2020. Eco.AP is an evolving programme that endeavours to establish energy efficiency measures to be implemented into services, agencies and public equipment and to change behaviour and promote the rational management of energy services, notably by hiring Energy Services Companies (ESCO) to sign an energy efficiency management contract.

The first draft of the Slovak 'Strategy for the renovation of the residential and non-residential building stock' towards improved energy efficiency, prepared under Art. 4 of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED), was approved by Government Resolution 347/2014 (in July 2014). The renovation of buildings should continue for a total of 29,000 apartment building units and 22,000 family houses annually, thus targeting a large proportion of the building stock constructed during the period of 1948-1992. By the end of 2018, 64.70% of apartment units in multi-apartment buildings and 40.71% of single-family houses had been renovated. The majority of renovated buildings followed the minimum energy performance requirements valid at the time of carrying out the construction works. In the future however, a deeper deep renovation process including increased efficiency will be necessary in many cases. This includes improvements of major technical building systems as well.

In compliance with the EED, energy audits have been carried out on buildings owned by the central government and were accompanied by progressive design documentation for building permits. Renovation works are generally financed using EU structural funds. Since 2016, the statistical data for the renovation of non-residential buildings have been available based on the approval procedures provided by the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.

The strategy for the renovation of existing buildings to NZEB levels is defined in the Slovenian national plan for NZEB (2015). Table 4 details the progress of this plan. About one third of the renovations included in the Long-Term Strategy for Mobilising Investment in the Renovation¹¹ (2015) was foreseen to reach NZEB levels. Despite this, progress in NZEB renovation is still quite slow. The NZEB renovation goes beyond deep renovations and is in many areas dependent on more sustainable energy supplies and on the deployment of smart energy networks. Deep renovation is thus the first step towards the goal and in many residential, public and non-residential buildings in Slovenia the process of step-by-step renovation has started.

More recently, the Long-Term Renovation Strategy for Mobilising Investments in the Energy Renovation of Buildings until 2050 (2021) predicted the NZEB renovation rate by the year 2050 to be as follows:

• Single-family houses, 98,600 m² (2021-2030), 996,900 m² (2031-2040), 3,164,100 m² (2041-2050) with cumulative heating energy savings (renovation + new built) of 26% (2030) and 45% (2050), respectively, compared to the base year 2020.
• Multi-family houses, 52,600 m² (2021-2030), 539,000 m² (2031-2040), 1,145,500 m² (2041-2050), with cumulative heating energy savings (renovation + new built) of 26% (2030) and 48% (2050), respectively, compared to the base year 2020.
• The total share of public NZEB is predicted to be 25.7% in 2030, and 75.1% in 2050, with cumulative heating energy savings (renovation + new built) of 20% (2030) and 26% (2050), respectively, compared to the base year 2020.
• The total share of private tertiary NZEB is predicted to be 24.4% in 2030, and 72.4% in 2050, with cumulative heating energy savings (renovation + new built) of 16% (2030 and 2050), compared to the base year 2020.

Table 4: Intermediate targets for the NZEB renovation of existing buildings in Slovenia.

According to the Long-Term Renovation Strategy (2015), the renovation rate of residential buildings was planned to be 1.7% in the 2016-2030 period, 1.8% in the 2021-2030 period, 2.3% in the 2031-2040 period, and 1.9% in the 2041-2050 period. The update to the long-term strategy (2018) introduced improvements in the field of quality management of renovation, development of holistic financial instruments and the Energy Service Company (ESCO) market. The following operational targets were set for the year 2023: a 3% annual renovation rate of buildings owned and occupied by the central government (between 15,000 m² and 25,000 m² per year), deep renovation of 1.8 million m² of public buildings and an improved ratio (1:3) between invested public resources and initiated investments in renovations in the public sector.

The new Long-Term Renovation Strategy (2021) brings some additional and revised targets. By 2050, 74% of single-family houses and 91% of multi-family houses shall be renovated to reduce energy use, with the final energy being reduced by 45%, and CO₂ being reduced by 75% compared to the base year 2005. Greenhouse gas emissions shall be reduced by 75% (base: 2005), and the share of RES shall be increased to at least two thirds of the energy use (excluding electricity and district heating), until 2030.

Eco Fund offers incentives for households for new NZEB single-family houses and the purchase of apartments in new multi-family NZEBs, as well as for deep renovation of houses and the purchase of apartments in deeply renovated multi-family buildings, according to NZEB standards. Requirements comprise high energy efficiency of the envelope (external walls: U ≤ 0.17 W/(m²K), windows: Uw ≤ 0.90 W/(m²K), central mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (ηt > 80%), blower door test (n50 ≤ 1.20 h-1) and at least 50% of delivered energy from RES or connection to an energy efficient district heating system. Higher incentives are available for thermal insulation from natural and recycled materials. Incentives for new NZEBs are available also for public buildings (municipalities) and other buildings in the private tertiary sector. Subsidies are available also for single renovation measures in the residential sector, where the height of the incentive is progressive depending on the number of implemented measures.

Since there is a large stock of buildings with low energy performance, the main objective in Spain, in terms of the energy performance of buildings in recent years, has been to establish a renovation standard with high performance criteria.

This effort is translated into action plans, based on public support, and a Renovation Strategy, which have led to the energy renovation of buildings to meet the CTE requirements. This criterium also defines the current NZEB levels in Spain, which means efforts are centred around the transposition of the building stock towards NZEB levels.

Current Renovation Support Plans which relate to building renovations are the following:

• the National Government Building and Renovation Support Plan of the Ministry of Public Works;

• the IDAE PAREER support line.

National Government Building and Renovation Support Plan

The National Government Building and Renovation support plan is developed through collaboration agreements with the Autonomous Communities, which include, among others, actions for the renovation of buildings and neighbourhoods. In particular, they aim to reduce the energy demand of buildings, with a focus on the building envelope, wall insulation, roofs and floors, and window replacement.

https://www.mitma.gob.es/arquitectura-vivienda-y-suelo/programas-de-ayudas-a-la-vivienda/programa-de-fomento-de-eficiencia-energetica-y-sostenibilidad-en-viviendas

The targets are single-family housing and buildings. A 20% - 35% reduction in the global annual energy demand for heating and cooling is required and public support ranges between 40% and 75% of the final investment.

Regarding PAREER grants

PAREER grants exist exclusively to improve the energy performance of buildings and the incorporation of renewable energy. The programme includes aid for the improvement of the thermal envelope of the building, the replacement of cooling, heating and domestic hot water generation systems with high efficiency ones, as well as the installation of renewable energy systems using geothermal or biomass fuel.

The plans to improve and increase the national renovation of existing buildings according to the EED (Energy Efficiency Directive), are developed in the Renovation Strategy, prepared and submitted by the Ministry of Public Works and Development, which envisages the lines of public support previously described. This document includes different alternatives and possible scenarios for the evolution of the building stock based on the actions carried out.

In the analysis of the first national plan for renovation, Sweden identified the lack of knowledge in the area of energy efficiency renovations as an important obstacle. The government therefore proposed in 2017 the establishment of a national information centre for sustainable buildings. For further information see section 2.II.vi.

In the analysis of the second renovation strategy, Sweden identified further areas that need to be developed in order to achieve a higher rate of energy efficient renovations. These areas comprise further development of the EPCs, developing guidance documents for all actors taking part in the renovation process, with specific emphasis on the relation between landlord and tenants, and a broadened scope for the existing governmental insurance for banks.

On 1 December 2019, an amendment was made to the Ordinance (2014:348) on energy metering in buildings, which imposes certain requirements on the installation of individual metering and charging systems (IMD) of heating and hot water. The IMD requirement is a consequence of the EU energy efficiency directive. The objective is to give residents incentives to actively save energy by lowering the indoor temperature or using less domestic hot water.

The requirement for IMD applies to those apartment buildings with the worst EPC classification. Exceptions to the IMD requirement are granted if the building owner implements energy efficiency measures that sufficiently improve the classification. Exceptions can also be granted in relation to technical and economical feasibility, or sometimes in relation to the requirements for caution and prohibition of distortion of particularly valuable buildings.

Sweden has several policy instruments in place that provide incentives for energy efficiency in connection to renovations. Many policy instruments complement each other and aim to correct for various market failures linked to energy efficiency and renovation, such as shared incentives or a lack of access to information. Policy instruments can also aim to speed up development in order to reach decided goals at the lowest cost possible for society. Policy instruments aimed for houses and service are:

• the Energy and carbon tax
• the Ecodesign directive
• the Energy labelling regulation
• Building regulations
• energy and climate guidance
• Energy Performance Certificates
• training programmes for buildings with low energy use

In addition to this, there are policy instruments directed towards the industrial sector, which can be used for energy efficiency of industrial buildings:

• the ‘industrial step’
• the ‘energy step’
• requirements and support for energy audits
• energy and climate coaches
• energy efficiency networks

In addition to these policy instruments, there are a number of supportive measures in place for mobilising energy efficiency investments:

• support for market introduction, technology development and innovation clusters, administered in the form of networks with funding from the Swedish Energy Agency : residential apartment buildings (BeBo), commercial and public non-residential buildings (BeLok), single-family house manufacturers (BeSmå), public sector renting non-residential buildings (HyLok) and food distribution (BeLivs). For energy-efficient new constructions, there is a network of co-financing from the Swedish Energy Agency and the industry (Lågan);
• risk minimisation measures for investors in the form of credit guarantees (Boverket);
• use of public funds to stimulate the private sector (see point 2.II.v);
• management of investments towards energy-efficient public buildings (see point 2.II.v);
• accessible and transparent advice tools (see paragraph 2.II.vi).

The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is responsible for the transposition of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)²⁷, which is mostly implemented on a UK‐wide basis with some jurisdiction-specific exceptions.

The UK National Energy Efficiency Action Plan²² includes a Building Renovation Strategy in compliance with EED Article 4. The strategy references existing measures, e.g., the Energy Company Obligation (helping households insulate homes), Salix (improving energy efficiency in public sector organisations) and RE:FIT (financing modernisation of public sector buildings), smart meters for households and small businesses, and the residential Renewable Heat Incentive (transforming the way homes are heated).

The UK is implementing the alternative approach under Article 5(6) of the EED and notified the Commission of the alternative measures adopted to achieve an equivalent improvement in the energy performance of Government buildings. The National Energy Efficiency Action Plan confirms the main policies and measures used to meet the target: The Greening Government Commitments (GGC)²⁸ for Central Government in England, and separate initiatives in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The measures include behavioural change, facilities management, estate management, and energy efficient technology. The GGC are expected to deliver 516.6 GWh savings by 2020, exceeding the 163.6 GWh target for equivalence.

Under Article 8 of the EED, the Government also introduced the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)²⁹ in 2014 which requires all large businesses to carry out regular audits of the energy use in their buildings, industrial processes and transport. The most recent audits were due to be completed by December 2019 and, in February 2020, the Government published an evaluation of the scheme, a Post Implementation Review (PIR), including options for strengthening the scheme³⁰.

The 2017 Clean Growth Strategy³¹ also sets out Government aspirations for existing buildings:

• “as many homes as possible will be upgraded to an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) band C by 2035, where practical, cost effective, and affordable.”
• “a long-term trajectory for energy performance standards across the private rented sector, with the aim of as many private rented homes as possible being upgraded to EPC Band C by 2030, where practical, cost-effective and affordable.”
• “build and extend heat networks across the country, underpinned with public funding (allocated in the Spending Review 2015) out to 2021.”
• “Invest in low carbon heating by reforming the Renewable Heat Incentive, spending £4.5 billion to support innovative low carbon heat technologies in homes and businesses between 2016 and 2021.”
• “Invest around £184 million of public funds, including two new £10 million innovation programmes to develop new energy efficiency and heating technologies to enable lower cost low carbon homes.”

The Government sets minimum energy efficiency standards in Building Regulations for works to existing residential and non-residential buildings. It plans to consult in 2020 on raising these standards.

The 2014 UK National Energy Efficiency Action Plan¹⁰ includes a Building Renovation Strategy in compliance with EED Article 4¹¹. The Welsh policies and programmes to deliver this strategy include:

• the National Energy Efficiency and Savings Plan (2011)¹²;
• the Fuel Poverty Strategy (2010)¹³;

• “Nest”¹⁴, a fuel poverty scheme delivered as part of the Warm Homes Programme that provides energy efficiency advice, alongside installation of home energy efficiency measures for qualifying properties based on a whole house assessment;

• “Arbed”¹⁵, an area-based scheme delivered as part of the Warm Homes Programme to deliver energy efficiency improvements based on a whole house assessment;

• the availability of an additional funding to leverage investment from the Energy Company Obligation (ECO);

• Building Regulations updates which include consequential improvements for all existing residential and non-residential buildings when extension or renovation work is undertaken. 

In 2017, the Welsh Government published an ambition for a carbon neutral Public Sector by 2030¹⁶. In 2019, the UK Government passed legislation to commit the UK to a legally binding target of net zero emissions by 2050.³

The UK National Energy Efficiency Action Plan¹⁵ included a Building Renovation Strategy in compliance with Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) Article 4¹⁶. The Northern Ireland policies and programmes to deliver this strategy include:

• the “Northern Ireland’s Strategic Energy Framework” (2010)¹⁷ which set out energy priorities for Northern Ireland to 2020;
• the “Affordable Warmth¹⁸ and Boiler Replacement Schemes¹⁹” supporting energy efficiency improvements in fuel‐poor households;
• the “Northern Ireland Sustainable Energy Programme” (NISEP)²⁰, providing grants for energy efficiency and renewable energy for domestic and non-domestic buildings. The NISEP is currently under review, the outcome of which will inform decisions for future energy efficiency support.

In addition:

The Department for Communities carried out a review of the role and regulation of the private rented sector²¹. The standard of properties, including plans to introduce a minimum energy efficiency standard for the private rented housing sector was within the scope of this review. A public consultation exercise was carried out in 2017²² which proposed to introduce legislation around EPC ratings similar to that in England. Proposals are being developed.

Invest Northern Ireland²³ delivers a suite of support, to enable Northern Ireland’s businesses to identify and achieve cost savings in the consumption of water, energy and raw materials. The support includes:

• Technical Consultancy: Available to all businesses with an annual energy and resource spend in excess of £30,000 (~34,928 €). Technical Consultancy support offers fully funded technical audits, feasibility studies and advice, complete with a report and recommendations to help participating businesses identify cost savings.
• Resource Matching through Industrial Symbiosis: Fully funded support that offers opportunities to convert redundant materials of one business, into a resource for another business, helping to add value and to reduce costs for all parties.
• Resource Efficiency Capital Grant: Available to Invest Northern Ireland’s client companies to invest in resource efficient technologies that will drive savings and business productivity. Grants of up to £40,000 (~46,571 €) are available to help with the purchasing of new equipment which will reduce the consumption of water, raw materials, and waste production.

In addition to this, Invest Northern Ireland runs the nibusinessinfo.co.uk website which is the official online channel for business advice and guidance in Northern Ireland. The website holds a section on Efficiency and Environment which provides extensive information, advice and signposting to available support, including a dedicated guide on Energy Performance Certificates for business properties.²⁴

In relation to Article 5 of the EED, the UK decided to implement the alternative approach allowed by Article 5(6). See England report for details. In Northern Ireland, Energy Efficiency Plans for the Government Office Estate commenced in 2011 with targeted energy savings of 10% and more recently 5%. The Plans focused on three areas: reduction in the footprint of the estate, capital investments in energy efficiency, and behavioural change. It is the intention to proceed on the basis of a new Plan every three years.

The Energy Efficient Scotland Programme²⁰ will be at the heart of activities led by the Scottish Government and its partners to improve the energy efficiency of all Scottish buildings over the next 15 – 20 years. The Programme has been organised into two delivery phases:

• Phase 1 (2016 – 2018) piloting new approaches and programme scoping; and
• Phase 2 (commencing in 2018), the initial phase of the integrated programme of support for the domestic and non-domestic sectors as set out in a published Route Map.

The National Energy Efficiency Action Plan (NEEAP)²⁴ includes a Building Renovation Strategy in compliance with the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)²⁵ Article 4. The policies and programmes to deliver this strategy include:

• A programme of interest free and low interest loans is available to SMEs, households and other organisations to incentivise the uptake and installation of energy and resource efficiency measures, micro-renewables and district heating;
• The “Sustainable Housing Strategy”²⁶, which sets targets for 2020 on insulation, boiler efficiency, and uptake of renewable heat for space and water heating;
• The Energy Efficient Scotland Programme²⁰ is supported by our national energy efficiency scheme, Warmer Homes Scotland²⁷, and Area Based Schemes designed and delivered by local councils. Since 2013, these programmes have provided energy efficiency measures to over 135,000 fuel poor households;
• The “Energy Company Obligation”²⁸ (ECO) mandating large energy suppliers to deliver a reduction in household energy costs by providing energy efficiency measures to domestic premises;
• Section 63 of the “Climate Change (Scotland) Act 2009”¹³ which requires non-domestic building owners to improve energy performance and reduce emissions. Work to review these Regulations to expand their scope and level of challenge is underway for 2021 as part of the Energy Efficient Scotland Programme²⁰.

• The “Energy Efficiency Standard for Social Housing”²⁹ which requires landlords of socially rented homes to ensure their properties meet a minimum energy efficiency rating by 2020.

By the end of 2021, over £1 billion will have been allocated (since 2009) to tackling fuel poverty and improving energy efficiency to make homes warmer and cheaper to heat.

The UK Government decided to implement the alternative approach allowed by EED Article 5(6). See England report for details. The Scottish Government publishes an annual assessment³⁰ of energy efficiency improvements of Civil Estate buildings. The Government updated its Environmental Policy setting out targets for the performance of the Civil Estate, and actions under their Carbon Management Plan, which is expected to save 27.5 GWh by 2020. To date, £1.5 million (~2 million €) has been spent on energy efficiency projects in Civil Estate buildings, including voltage optimisation, lighting upgrades, building management systems, and building fabric improvements.