Joint Letter – A binding 14.5% energy efficiency target in 2030 for reviving Europe’s economy

Together with COGEN Europe, EHPA, EPEE, eu.bac, EURIMA, Euroheat & Power, the European Alliance to Save Energy, Glass for Europe and PU Europe, we wrote to Commissioner Kadri Simson, MEP Niels Fuglsang and Czech Minister Josef Síkela ahead of the trilogue negotiations on the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED).

As business leaders, we urged the EU co-legislators to substantially raise the ambition in the EED recast and to set a 14.5% target for energy efficiency in 2030, with binding targets both for primary and final energy consumption and binding national contributions. This is all the more pressing in a time of unprecedentedly high energy prices and devastating climate change.

In May 2022, the Commission proposed to raise the level of the target from a binding 9% to 13% by 2030. The Council had not raised the ambition any further from 9%, while the European Parliament supported a target of 14.5% with mandatory contributions from all Member States: a move in the right direction, but far from the cost-effective economic potential of at least 19%.

A 14.5% efficiency target in 2030 would increase EU GDP by 0.6% in 2030, representing €94 billion of added wealth, and lead to the creation of 752,000 sustainable and local jobs. Since the start of the energy crisis, European countries have disbursed €674 billion of public spending to shield consumers from rising energy costs, more than all grants and loans of the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

By advancing the energy efficiency agenda, the European Union can still be the world’s first major economy to go climate neutral by 2050 for the good of businesses, citizens and the environment.