Niels LADEFOGED

What Niels LADEFOGED has said (7)

• “There are provisions and smart readiness on indoor air quality, on embedded carbon emissions, on renewables technologies and sustainable mobility. Ev charging. But the measures that are most relevant for today's meeting, I would say, are those related to accelerating renovations of buildings and to addressing the needs of vulnerable consumers. And let me just say a few words on on some of those measures and point out that the directive does not set minimum energy performance requirements at European level for residential buildings. Member states can do so. But but they are not required to do that under the directive. What it does require is for the member states to set a trajectory for renovating the residential building stock, with an emphasis on the worst performing part of the building stock. Um, the link with housing here is evident. Renovating first the worst performing ones. We get more efficient residential buildings more with higher or modern quality standards for citizens and with lower energy bills and less therefore exposure to the risk of volatile energy prices. The solution to increase housing supply is not necessarily new constructions. It can also be to use the buildings we have better and renovating those that are not up to the modern standards.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings · EU housing policy
• “There is no doubt that housing is a multifaceted, uh, challenge. And you have been discussing other aspects in other hearings and meetings of this committee, but energy is certainly a big part of it. Uh, to quote just a few figures, uh, you know, we live in an old continent where a very large share of our buildings are old. Around 70%, and they are therefore typically quite inefficient from an energy point of view and from in terms of modern functionalities. And most of those buildings that will stand in 2050 will also be already exist today. So renovating buildings is a key challenge. Um, the building sector in Europe consumes 40% of all energy, 40%, and is responsible for more than a third of the greenhouse gas emissions. So reaching our climate and energy goals will be impossible without addressing buildings. What is more, buildings consume directly.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings
• “We have started, um, long ago, uh, one of the key tools we have and which we updated and sharpened as part of the fit for 55 in the last mandate, uh, is the energy Performance of Buildings Directive. That directive has actually its roots, I would say as long as back as as in the 70s, after the first oil crisis, where some member states adopted for the first time energy requirements to to buildings, uh, but not all did. And and just about two decades ago, Europe decided to have an epbd directive. So it's the fourth version we are on now. But the essence and the origins of the epbd is to make sure that requirements are set when buildings are constructed. Energy requirements are set when they're constructed or renovated, and a core foundation and principal and it remains so in the Epbd is the principle of cost optimality. And this this points back to what I where I started. It's important when we look at buildings to consider costs over the lifetime of a building, and not just the upfront construction costs. But nowadays we have, um, a new, um, we have a new challenge, and it's to increase the rate and depth of renovation because otherwise we won't reach our targets. Um, and the Epbd as it was adapted in the last mandate, covers several new aspects in relation to buildings, and to facilitating this renovation, and to sustainability in a wider sense of buildings.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy (green transition) · Energy performance of buildings
• “Thank you very much. And thank you very much to the members of the Committee for the invitation to come and address this very important topic. To quote Commissioner Jorgensen at his his statement to the hearing of the Parliament, he said he will be exploring the full synergies across my portfolio of energy and housing, and we will put forward a European affordable housing plan to support the millions of young people and families who struggle to find affordable housing. Counting on the support of the European Parliament and all relevant stakeholders I will put forward. I will put strong emphasis on the energy efficiency of buildings and contribute to the first EU anti-poverty strategy with concrete actions to bring tangible results such as reducing energy costs and energy poverty across Europe. This will not only strengthen our social cohesion, but also contribute to our economic growth and competitiveness towards a more sustainable and prosperous Europe. And I think to put, put, uh, to put it briefly, um, affordable housing that is affordable in the short term is not really affordable or what Europe's citizens aspire for. And I think today's hearing is very good opportunity to deepen the discussion about the challenges, but also the common solutions that are needed for building sustainability and for housing in Europe in particular when it comes to energy and sustainability of the European building stock.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings · EU housing policy
• “One special case is, of course, repurposing buildings that are currently used for other purposes, such as offices, into housing solutions. A key measure of this epbd The new one is the National building renovation plans, and this is under the responsibility of the member states to draw up these ones. These plans, the draft ones, have to be there by the end of this year, and the final ones before the end of next year. And this is really supposed to be a tool that will constitute an investment plan at national level, and an investment plan for how we renovate and a staged renovation, setting the priorities both in terms of what parts of the building stock should be targeted when and where, for instance, financial measures, um, are most in need, and what kind of tools are used for which types of challenges? Financing is critical, uh, and the Ebrd does introduce specific criteria for financing and technical assistance in the field of building renovation, which will also be relevant for housing policies as a national level based on those criteria. National financial incentives shall target priority with the priority vulnerable consumers, energy poor and social housing, and the member States will have to consider revenue based parameters when designing financial support schemes. And they shall aim that to ensure that financial incentives benefit both landlords and tenants.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings · EU housing policy
• “Apologies. Buildings consume, directly or indirectly more than half of all natural gas used in Europe, more than half 52% in 23. So that shows that it's also important for other aspects than just climate and consumption in terms of our reducing our dependency on imported Russian fossil fuels. Uh, there's also significant, uh, potential synergy there in terms of energy poverty. Uh, the situation in Europe is quite dramatic. In 20, 30, 47 million EU citizens, which is more than 10% of the population. They were unable to keep their homes adequately warm. This is not, uh, in Commissioner Jorgensen's view, a sustainable and acceptable situation. Uh, and energy poverty and addressing that is a key component of a just transition and should be important in our future housing policy. And swift and performing energy efficient renovation of the housing stock will impact the success of the Green Deal. As I just said before, uh, and it will contribute to address the root causes of energy poverty and reduce costs, which are part of housing costs. And with a commissioner that is both in charge of energy but also of housing for the first time and with a special committee in the Parliament on housing, we have an unprecedented opportunity to to make good progress here. Um, but we're not starting from scratch. And this is one of our main messages today.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings · EU housing policy
• “So you can see there are clear synergies with the agenda of this committee. There are also requirements to safeguard and protect vulnerable households and and provisions relating to avoiding eviction after renovation and so on. In terms of helping citizens directly, the directive also requires member states to set up mechanisms to support homeowners with information, reliable information and so on in a so called one stop shops. So we are about to. We are now in the implementation phase. By the end of the month, we'll. Commission will launch a big implementation support package to help guide the Member States in transposing the legislation into national legislation and to set out some of the detailed requirements that were called for by the Parliament. So I think to end, we have the challenges for housing and the challenges for renovating Europe's building stock are more characterized by overlaps than opposition. There is a common challenge of financial resources, but also overcoming bottlenecks in terms of workforce, skilled labor, um, complexity in permitting and so on. So there is really a historic opportunity here to address these things together, jointly with common policies and actions. And, um, we believe this kind of holistic perspective is already out there, and we hope the committee will find good ways forward on this matter. Thank you for your attention.”
  Energy efficiency · Energy performance of buildings · EU housing policy