The European Parliament adopted by 469 votes to 93, with 82 abstentions, amendments to the proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on energy efficiency (recast).
The matter was referred back to the committee responsible for inter-institutional negotiations.
The main amendments adopted in plenary are as follows
Aims
This Directive establishes a common framework of measures to promote energy efficiency within the Union in order to ensure that the binding Union's target on energy efficiency is met and enables further energy efficiency improvements, contributing to the implementation of the Paris Agreement and to the Union’s security of energy supply through reducing its dependence on energy imports, including fossil fuels. The Directive also provides for the establishment of binding national energy efficiency contributions for 2030.
Increasing energy efficiency targets
Member States should collectively ensure a reduction of energy consumption of at least 40 % in 2030 in final energy consumption and 42.5 % in primary energy consumption compared to the projections of the 2007 reference scenario so that the Union’s final energy consumption amounts to no more than 740 Mtoe and the Union’s primary energy consumption amounts to no more than 960 Mtoe in 2030. Member State should set binding national energy efficiency contributions for final and primary energy consumption to meet, collectively, the binding Union targets. They should notify those contributions together with a trajectory with two reference points (milestones) in 2025 and 2027 for those contributions.
The Commission should assess whether the collective contribution of Member States is sufficient to achieve the Union's energy efficiency target. If it concludes that it is not sufficient, it would propose to each Member State an adjusted national contribution that would allow the collective contribution of Member States to reach the Union target.
Energy efficiency first principle
In line with the energy efficiency first principle, energy efficiency solutions should be assessed in the design and planning of policy decisions as well as major investment decisions, including for non-energy sectors, where they have an impact on energy use and efficiency, such as the building, transport, water, ICT and agriculture sectors as well as the financial sector
When applying the energy efficiency first principle, Member States should:
- define a cost-benefit analysis methodology that assesses the wider benefits of energy efficiency solutions taking into account the entire life cycle and foreseeable developments, system and cost efficiency, security of supply and quantification from the societal, health, economic and climate neutrality perspective;
- ensure that the application of the energy efficiency first principle will have a positive impact on addressing energy poverty;
- secure that the investments made are environmentally sustainable at all stages of the energy value chain and apply circularity principles in transition to climate neutrality.
Public sector leading on energy efficiency
The total final energy consumption of all public bodies combined should be reduced by at least 2% each year, compared to the year of entry into force of the Directive. Member States should:
- provide financial and technical support to public bodies in the uptake of energy efficiency improvement measures and encourage them to take into account the wider benefits beyond energy savings, such as the quality of the indoor air and environment as well as an improvement of people’s quality of life and the comfort of renovated public buildings, in particular schools, day care centres, nursing homes, sheltered housing, hospitals, and social housing;
- encourage public bodies to take adequate measures to address the heating dimension of buildings owned or occupied by public bodies;
- promote the use of public transport and other less polluting and more energy efficient means of mobility, such as rail, cycling, walking or shared mobility.
Each Member State should ensure that at least 3% of the total floor area of heated and/or cooled privately owned buildings providing social infrastructure is deeply renovated each year. Social housing could be exempted from the renovation obligation where such renovations would not be cost neutral.
Where public bodies occupy a building they do not own, they should encourage the owner of the building to implement an energy management system or energy performance contract to maintain and improve energy performance over time.
Empower and protect vulnerable customers and reduce energy poverty
Member States should, inter alia:
- develop a robust long-term strategy and take appropriate measures to empower and protect people affected by energy poverty, vulnerable customers and low-income households and, where applicable, people living in social housing;
- put in place proper monitoring and evaluation instruments to ensure that people affected by energy poverty are supported by energy efficiency improvement measures;
- ensure that measures to promote or facilitate energy efficiency, in particular those concerning buildings and mobility, do not lead to a disproportionate increase in the cost of these services or to greater social exclusion;
- take appropriate measures to protect people affected by energy poverty against unfair price setting and price increases in the supply of heating, cooling and domestic hot water.
Energy management systems and energy audits
Enterprises should implement an energy management system where their average annual energy consumption over the previous three years, taking into account all energy carriers, has been: (a) higher than 100 TJ, from 1 January 2024; (b) higher than 70 TJ, from 1 January 2027.
Enterprises that do not implement an energy management system should be subject to an energy audit where their average annual energy consumption over the previous three years, taking into account all energy carriers, has been: (a) higher than 10 TJ, from 1 January 2024; (b) higher than 6 TJ, from 1 January 2027.
Data centres
To promote sustainability in the ICT sector, in particular data centres, Member States should collect and publish relevant data for the energy performance, water footprint and demand-side flexibility of data centres, based on a common EU template. Member States should only collect and publish data on data centres that have an installed IT power demand of at least 100 kW.
Information and awareness raising
Member States should engage with relevant authorities and private stakeholders for the purpose of developing dedicated local, regional or national one-stop shops for energy efficiency. Those one-stop shops should lead to locally developed projects by advising and providing streamlined information on technical and financial possibilities and solutions to households, SMEs, microenterprises, public bodies; advising on energy consumption behaviour with the aim of actively engaging the consumers; by developing services for energy poor, vulnerable consumers and low-income households.