Energy efficiency is a crucial element of the European Green Deal and the EU’s goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050. The current energy crisis linked to the war in Ukraine has further highlighted the importance of saving energy to help the EU become independent from Russian fossil fuel imports, mitigate the impact of high energy prices and respond to potential shortages. As part of the REPowerEU plan, on 18 May 2022 the European Commission proposed the EU Save Energy plan.

The EU Save Energy plan proposes measures to achieve immediate energy savings and strengthen energy efficiency in the mid and long term. In the short term, the focus will be on voluntary choices and changes in habits, for example reducing heating temperatures, reducing air travel, shifting to public transport, using household appliances more efficiently and switching off the lights. Supported actions in Member States can take the form of information campaigns, incentives such as rebates on the purchase of more efficient appliances or reduced VAT on high efficiency heating systems, including energy savings skills in school curricula etc. The Commission also intends to develop awareness-raising materials for use by other bodies, publicise its ‘Playing my part’ campaign (organised jointly with the International Energy Agency) and launch a European Product Registration for Energy Labelling (EPREL) database consumer interface.

The communication on EU Save Energy also includes a non-exclusive toolbox of measures to achieve immediate energy savings, such as information campaigns on energy wastage in households, encouraging purchase of more efficient appliances, promoting insulation measures in buildings, and financial incentives for replacement of fossil fuel systems with renewables. As regards transport, the toolbox suggests for instance the reinforcement of electric vehicles, price reduction for public and rail transport, incentives for walking and cycling, promoting efficient driving, and organising car free days in cities.

As part of the mid- and long-term structural energy efficiency, the Commission proposes to increase the 13 % binding target under the Energy Efficiency Directive (upward from 9 % by 2030 proposed as part of the Fit for 55 package in July 2021). It also encourages the Parliament and Council to consider additional savings and energy efficiency measures under the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive, and to support a rapid adoption of the regulation on Ecodesign for Sustainable Products and the reform of the Single European Sky Regulation enabling modernisation of air traffic management. The Commission is also considering a legislative initiative to increase the share of zero emission vehicles and a legislative package on greening freight transport.

The mid- and long-term measures will also build on existing efforts, such as the EU climate targets, the governance structure based on National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), and EU rules on ecodesign and energy labelling. The need to increase energy efficiency will require a further strengthening of these efforts, for instance through a national energy savings obligation, increasing energy efficiency in key sectors, stopping subsidies for fossil fuel technologies, promotion of renewable technologies and development of energy savings technologies, and enhanced implementation of energy audit results. Other possible measures include additional minimum energy performance standards for buildings, phasing out Member States’ subsidies for fossil fuel-based boilers in buildings and banning such boilers in buildings, strengthening national energy efficiency requirements for new buildings, tightening national heating system requirements for existing buildings, and further increasing energy efficiency in transport.

The financing of EU Save Energy is expected to come from the Recovery and Resilience Facility, the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), the Modernisation Fund, the Social Climate Fund, cohesion policy funds (European Regional Development Fund, Cohesion Fund and Just Transition Fund), the InvestEU Programme, Common Agricultural Policy, Horizon Europe, the LIFE programme, the European Investment Bank and private funding (for instance via launching a high-level European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition with the financial sector, based on the successful Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group).

The Commission will encourage the participation of key stakeholders to build energy saving partnerships. It will also call on the Member States to report by 1 July 2022 on the actions taken to achieve short-term demand reduction and to outline future actions in this area.

References:

• European Commission, EU Save Energy, COM(2022)240
• European Commission, Factsheet on Energy Savings, 18 May 2022

Author: Agnieszka Widuto, Members' Research Service, legislative-train@europarl.europa.eu