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New Energy World
New Energy World embraces the whole energy industry as it connects and converges to address the decarbonisation challenge. It covers progress being made across the industry, from the dynamics under way to reduce emissions in oil and gas, through improvements to the efficiency of energy conversion and use, to cutting-edge initiatives in renewable and low carbon technologies.
Institutional investors ready to spend big on energy efficient buildings
13/7/2022
6 min read
Banks, building societies and funds are crucial for pumping private sector money into Europe’s energy efficiency drive. As many of them have also committed to making their investment portfolios greener, what are they doing to help finance the EU’s quest to reduce energy demand from its 210mn buildings? Energy journalist Karolin Schaps reports.
On its mission to wean itself off energy imports from Russia, the European Union (EU) has earmarked even deeper energy efficiency targets as one of the keys to greater energy independence. In its REpowerEU package, announced following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission (EC) set out to increase the bloc’s binding 2030 energy efficiency target to 13% from 9%, based on 2020 levels, previously aimed at under its Green Deal legislation.
In parallel, member states will soon be legally bound to reducing final energy use by 36% below 1990 levels as part of the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ climate transition package that aims to put the continent on track to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 55% on its path to a net zero economy by 2050.
The EU’s buildings consume around 40% of the bloc’s energy, the highest of any individual sector. Up to 95% of today’s buildings in the EU will still be standing in 2050, but three quarters of them have a poor energy rating. This spells out the immense task at hand to not only improve efficiency in existing buildings but also to invest in equipping new ones with state-of-the-art energy efficiency measures.