Position Paper: Heating & Cooling Strategy

This position paper set out EuroACE’s views on the European Commission’s upcoming Heating & Cooling Strategy, based on the issue papers published by DG ENER in July 2015.

Recognising the importance of buildings in the Energy Union. Buildings represent about 40% of total EU energy consumption and around 36% of CO2 emissions, and 70% of them are still inefficient. Despite better recognition of their potential at political level, a robust policy framework to implement it was still missing. Residential and non-residential buildings should be considered together.

Energy Efficiency First! Considering the high potential of energy savings in buildings, and the fact that all the necessary technologies are already available on the market, EuroACE called for putting the Energy Efficiency First principle into practice in the Strategy, focusing on the reduction of energy demand from buildings.