Buildings Climate Tracker: pathways to climate-neutral buildings in Central and Eastern Europe
The EU Buildings Climate Tracker, a flagship annual report from the Brussels-based think tank BPIE, evaluates progress in decarbonising buildings across the EU. The report finds that in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE), progress towards a low-carbon built environment has slowed, and that tailored strategies are urgently needed. Linking economic growth, energy security, and better quality of life to mass-scale energy renovation could help the CEE region to accelerate efforts, close the gap, and get on track to climate neutrality.
The second edition of the EU Buildings Climate Tracker, published in November 2023, underscores the urgency and scale of efforts needed to decarbonise the building sector in the European Union. Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) faces unique challenges here and needs tailored strategies to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The report’s insights provide a critical roadmap for policymakers, stakeholders, and communities in the CEE region.
The EU Buildings Climate Tracker evaluates the progress of the building sector in the EU towards climate neutrality using a composite index of five key indicators: CO2 emissions, final energy consumption, renewable energy share, investments in renovation, and domestic energy expenditures. For the CEE region, the analysis presents a more daunting scenario compared to the broader EU context.
By 2020, the CEE region was 21 points off the required decarbonisation path, the largest gap since 2015. This shortfall indicates that the policies and measures implemented in the region have not been sufficient to align with the ambitious climate goals set for 2030 and beyond. The current trajectory necessitates a significant increase in annual decarbonisation efforts, estimated at 5.7 points per year, to close the gap and stay on track.
Drilling down into the results of the five indicators used in the tracker, the report finds that CO2 emissions from energy use in buildings in the CEE region are substantially higher than the required targets. In 2021, emissions were 37.3% higher for households and 24% higher for the service sector compared to the target values. This points to a widening gap between the reported emissions and the path to climate neutrality.
The CEE region faces challenges in reducing final energy consumption in buildings. Household energy consumption reached 631 TWh in 2020, 14.6% higher than the target value, and this indicator increased again by 6.9% in 2021. In the services sector, energy consumption increased by 9.1% in 2021, bringing consumption close to the levels observed in 2016.
The share of renewable energy in heating and cooling remains significantly below the required levels. Previously the penetration of renewables was a growing trend in CEE that was better than the EU average, but this has flattened. In 2021, the share of renewables in heating and cooling in CEE reduced from 25.5% to 24.7%, and the share of renewable sources in gross electricity consumption remained stable between 2020 and 2021 at around 22.8%.
The cumulated investment in renovation in real terms has increased since 2015. However, it is still far from the target value. In the CEE region, in 2021, investments in renovation increased by 3%, but the accumulated value (16 billion EUR2015) is still 37.1% lower than the target value (24.9 billion EUR2015).
The CEE region’s household energy expenditure has been higher than the target values since 2015, except in 2017. In 2020, this indicator reached 1,018 EUR2010, 6.3% higher than the target value for that year. The gap in the CEE region is widening – unlike the trend across the EU, where the energy expenditure per household is close to achieving the target value towards climate neutrality. Social aspects matter: rising energy bills for households can have significant impacts, especially for those in energy poverty. Addressing energy affordability through targeted interventions is necessary for a just transition, and to bring the benefits home to people in their daily lives.
Closing the gap
How can the CEE region bridge the decarbonisation gap and accelerate towards a net-zero 2050? Faster and bolder action is evidently needed, and the EU Buildings Climate Tracker pinpoints crucial policy recommendations for the CEE region. Notably, Member States have just under two years to transpose into national legislation the measures in the recently revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) that can help get the buildings sector on track towards climate neutrality
Promoting deep renovations is a crucial step. Developing and supporting comprehensive renovation programmes targeting the worst-performing buildings through financial incentives, technical assistance, and awareness campaigns can help accelerate the rate of deep renovations. This goes hand-in-hand with promoting adaptation measures across the existing and new building stock to reduce the influence of weather and natural events on buildings operations.
Decarbonising heating and cooling is a key target. The report notes that primary solid biofuels make up most of the renewable energy for space heating (around 86% in the EU and 97% in the CEE region), highlighting the need to define clear and effective sustainability criteria for bioenergy, and to prioritise clean heating solutions such as geothermal, solar thermal, district heating powered by renewables, and heat pumps.
It’s a tall order, but used strategically, available EU funding, such as from EU Cohesion Funds and the Social Climate Fund, could go a long way to support rollout of the most urgently needed renovations. Renovate Europe has identified that Member states have planned to spend a total of €269bn using the European Regional Development Fund, the Cohesion Fund and Just Transition Fund. 7% (€20bn) of this funding is allocated for building renovation and energy efficiency projects across the public sector, residential sector, and businesses. And the Social Climate Fund is expected to mobilise at least €86.7 billion over the 2026-2032 period.
But effective spending of course boils down to effective EPBD – notably with a well-developed national building renovation plan at the basis and clear identification of the worst-performing buildings that need to be renovated first.
Towards a healthier environment
The third edition of the EU Buildings Climate Tracker, due to be published later this year, will feature a thematic focus, highlighting the relevance of decarbonisation of the building stock for the health of buildings’ users and socio-economic security. Better buildings ultimately means better places for people to live and work in. Decarbonised buildings bring a host of co-benefits: lower fossil fuel import dependency, improved health outcomes and economic stimulus. Clear and effective plans for accelerating the rate of deep renovations, promoting clean heating solutions, and effectively implementing the new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, will mean that the CEE region can make substantial progress towards climate neutrality by 2050, benefiting both the environment and the quality of life for its residents.
Read the full report of the EU Climate Buildings Tracker here.
Caroline Milne, Head of Communications, BPIE (Buildings Performance Institute Europe)
About the author:
As Head of Communications at BPIE, Caroline develops and deploys BPIE’s long-term communications strategy, leads the communications team and manages communications campaigns across a wide range of projects.
Prior to joining BPIE, Caroline was Director of Communications and Marketing at Joule Assets, where she led communications and stakeholder engagement for European projects targeting energy efficiency project developers and investors, including SEAF H2020 and LAUNCH H2020. In this role, she also led deployment of the commercial launch of the eQuad platform, which facilitates investment in energy efficiency projects for SMEs in Europe, and organized outreach towards municipal leaders and residents in New York State in effort to create bulk energy buying programmes (“Community Choice Aggregation”). Before entering the energy efficiency space, Caroline spent several years working as a freelance English teacher for business professionals, copywriter and academic editor.