Building sector industries call on EU leaders to draw lessons from the risk of energy shortage and adopt an ambitious binding target on energy efficiency
Yesterday (16th October 2014), the European Commission published the results of the so-called “stress tests” evaluating the resilience of many EU countries to possible gas supply shortages this winter. Some of the results are alarming: According to the Commission, a prolonged supply disruption would mean that many EU member States will miss at least 60% of the gas they need. The Commission starkly concludes that: “This means that even private households could be left out in the cold”.
The building sector industry associations Eurima, Glass for Europe, EuroACE, PU Europe and the Renovate Europe Campaign regret that the recommendations made by the Commission in order to solve this situation are not accompanied by structural solutions, including the most important part of the EU’s energy infrastructure: its buildings, which according to the IEA hold 80% of untapped energy savings potential.