Transforming empty words on energy efficiency into real action on energy savings

By Arianna Vitali Roscini, Policy Officer for energy conservation, WWF European Policy Office

Although energy savings and efficiency are held to be vitally important for the economy, for consumers and for the climate, the European Union measures that effectively deliver energy savings are still missing. The Energy Efficiency Plan presented by the European Commission at the beginning of March, unfortunately does not appear to be the instrument that will drive real action on energy savings.

While the Plan acknowledges that the European Union is not on track to reach 20% energy savings by 2020, the target has not been turned into a binding one, and a decision in this sense has been inexplicably postponed until 2013.

The fact that the energy efficiency target is not binding has led to a lack of ownership among policymakers at the EU and national level and no clear assignment of responsibilities. Without a framework to steer sectoral energy efficiency measures in the right direction and to channel the available funding towards the required investment, the energy efficiency sector has unfortunately not had the same drive enjoyed by the one of renewables. Making the energy saving target binding would provide investors with the security to start long-term investment in energy efficiency and, at the same time, guide the adoption of new ambitious policies and appropriate implementation of existing ones.

Another shortcoming of the Energy Efficiency Plan is that it fails to adequately address the refurbishment of the existing residential building stock. The average renovation rate in Europe is still extremely low (around 1.2% each year). WWF believes that innovative financing schemes, together with measures to support the deployment of energy performance contracting, urgently need to be put in place to at least triple the rate of deep renovations.  Unfortunately, the Plan mainly suggests measures and targets to renovate public buildings, which only represent around 12% by area of the overall EU building stock.

WWF hopes that the new Directive on Energy Efficiency and Savings expected this year will be the long-awaited occasion for the European Union to turn empty consensus on energy efficiency into measures that will deliver energy savings. In a period in which the composition of the energy mix and security of supply concerns make the first page of all newspapers, energy savings must become the uncontroversial first step towards a sustainable energy future.

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