EU sets new building emissions standards

Under the Fit for 55 Programme, the EU has made changes to Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and Construction Products Regulation.

Fit for 55 is the EU’s model for reducing CO2 emissions by 55 per cent by 2030 compared with emissions in 2005. The new regulations stipulate that all publicly owned buildings must be carbon neutral if they are constructed from 2028 onwards, and that this must apply to all buildings, public or private, from 2030 onwards.

For existing buildings, member states agreed to individual measures for residential and non-residential buildings, with the goal of ensuring carbon neutrality for all buildings in the EU by 2050.

For existing non-residential buildings, agreement was reached on maximum energy performance thresholds which are to be based on primary energy use. The first of these outlines a reduction in primary energy use of 15 per cent of the worst-performing non-residential buildings in a member state by 2030, with a second threshold of 25 per cent to be met by 2034. The EU clarifies that the thresholds would be set based on the energy use of the national building stock on 1 January 2020 and may be differentiated between different building categories.

For existing residential buildings, member states agreed on a suite of measures which will set minimum energy performance standards. These standards are based on a national trajectory aligned with the progressive renovation of building stock towards zero-emissions by 2050, as outlined in states’ respective national building renovation plans.

The national trajectory would correspond to the decrease of the average primary energy use in the whole residential building stock over the period from 2025 to 2050 with two control points to keep stock of member states’ achievements. These would ensure that the average primary energy use of the whole residential building stock is at least equivalent to:

• the D energy performance class level by 2033

• a nationally determined value by 2040.

The EU will further require a new category A0 to the energy performance certificates which will correspond to zero-emissions buildings. Furthermore, this will enable member states to adopt a new category, A+, corresponding to buildings, which, in addition to being zero-emissions, contribute on-site renewable energy to the energy grid.

Existing energy performance certification for buildings, previously set by the Directive, ranks buildings on a scale from A (best performing) to G (worst performing) based on their energy performance.