Enigin Update - EU Budget must Target Energy Efficiency
CONNIE Hedegaard, the EU's commissioner for climate action, told regional leaders that energy efficiency must be given "bigger priority" with the EU budget used to influence investments in energy-saving.
The commissioner stated that the EU should use its financial resources in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while raising energy efficiency standards, which she claims should be priorities.
Hedegaard, was speaking to representatives of regional governments from across Europe yesterday, during the 'European Regions Energy Day' in Brussels. She said the EU budget needs to be targeted, with structural and cohesion funds used to finance energy efficiency measures, such as upgrading buildings.
The European Commission is due to present its initial proposals for the next 'Multi-annual Financial Framework' (MFF) towards the end of June.
"So far it has been the experience that this is one of the areas where we are actually not using all the possibilities that we have in the budget," she said, commenting that the next MFF should give greater priority to energy efficiency.
Hedegaard highlighted that energy efficiency is the area in which the EU is failing to live up to its commitments it has already made in the 'climate and energy package' that was adopted in 2009.
"We are on track to meet the emissions target and the renewables target, but not our energy efficiency target," said Hedegaard.
"One of the very clear messages in the 2050 roadmap is [that] we need to focus much more on energy efficiency: on retrofitting buildings, restoring pipelines, and being much more energy efficient all over the place," said the commissioner.
The European Commission calculate that the EU as a whole, some €270 billion of investment is needed each year to support the transition to a low-carbon solutions.
"Yes, it's a lot of money," Hedegaard accepted, "but in the same period, each year we would save between €175 billion and €320 billion in less expenses for imported fossil fuels. So we have very much to see this as an investment in a cleaner future".
Further benefits of less-polluting technologies would be cleaner air, better health and more jobs. The European Commission estimates that a net gain of between 1 and 2 million jobs across the whole of the EU.
The most recent European Energy Efficiency Plan, published last month, includes a proposed target to upgrade at least 3 percent of all public buildings across member states each year.
Hedegaard did warn that such initiatives cannot rely only on public money, suggesting that it is necessary to discover ways of persuading private companies and banks to invest in the upgrading and retrofitting buildings.
The commissioner believes that the EU needs to develop financing mechanisms designed to lever private capital and stimulate investments in actions that contribute to energy efficiency.
Enigin Distributors have the required experience and access to cutting edge energy efficiency solutions from Enigin Plc to enable both the private and public sectors to upgrade and renovate buildings to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions and energy costs.
Picture of European Parliament by Steve Cadman
