Buildings Archives

Building renovation needs to be full-scale, particularly regarding residential housing, which too often only focuses on heat-related upgrades, the industry said in reaction to recent government initiatives. 

An efficient Energy Performance of Buildings Directive must look out for the reduction of ‘whole life carbon emissions’ in order to achieve Europe's climate goals, writes Zsolt Toth. 

High interest rates and a surge in material costs have seen Germany’s pace of construction falter, prompting industry concerns at a time when talks on EU renovation initiatives are stalling.

The European Parliament passed new rules on Tuesday (12 July) to standardise construction products in the EU, amid criticism from the Greens who say the law does nothing to transform the industry.

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne has sketched a timetable to ban the sale of new gas boilers in France but decision-makers are treading carefully as some fear the government may face similar difficulties as Germany with its own phase-out plan.

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced on Sunday (9 July) that the government would release an additional €7 billion from 2024 to finance the green transition, part of which will be allocated to energy renovations.

The European Union is nearing an agreement on upgrading the leakiest, most inefficient buildings. This is an apolitical issue that must be kept out of the damaging clutches of politicisation, writes Adrian Joyce.

Italy needs to invest more and step up efforts to meet a European Union 2030 target for lower carbon emissions, a government document showed, highlighting the country's challenges to keep up with EU green ambitions.

Austria's heating law, which aimed to ban new fossil-fuel heaters from 2023, has been stuck in parliament for months as the government has yet to obtain the necessary backing from the centre-left SPÖ. 

The Energy Performance of Buildings Directive has the potential to make a real difference in the process of decarbonizing the building stock, as long as high standards for zero emissions and minimum energy performance are maintained, writes Oliver Rapf. 

As final talks on the EU’s buildings directive kick off in Brussels, advocates of an ambitious reform are warning against a repeat of Germany’s boiler war that risks hindering ambitious climate action.

Europe’s power system will face additional strain in winter as the electrification of heating progresses, making the renovation of buildings an essential element to reduce strain on the electricity grid and optimise the performance of heat pumps.

The Slovenian government has extended the existing system of partial regulation of motor fuel and heating oil prices for another year.

Households in Slovakia postpone replacing their old fossil fuel boilers with greener heat pumps due to a six-month subsidy lag during a crucial period before the heating season, said Petra Čakovská of the Slovak consumer group SOS.

The high-profile political spat over the end of fossil fuel boilers in Germany may end up benefitting demand for connections to city-wide heating grids similar to those currently deployed in Berlin, with plans to connect 100,000 buildings every year.

A controversial law banning fossil-fuel heating will enter the German parliament this week, the party leaders of Germany’s three-way coalition announced on Tuesday, resolving a months-long feud and blockade of government business. The legislation is a flagship policy of the Greens, …

Achieving the green transition requires rapid and large-scale investment from cities, national governments and the private sector acting in unison, writes Mark Watts.

A reform of the rules governing the EU’s trade in construction products has won crucial backing from the European Parliament’s internal market committee, but with environmentalists complaining it was too soft on industry demands.

As EU member states prepare to submit their revised National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) to the European Commission on 30 June, they must pay greater attention to energy efficiency, writes Monica Frassoni.

As lawmakers in Berlin debate the optimum way to achieve a climate-neutral building stock, it is becoming increasingly clear that a simple switch to cleaner heating may not be enough, particularly in terms of their own building, the Bundestag.

Germany’s planned ban on new fossil heaters looks set to be defeated by staunch parliament opposition and could take as long as 2030 to come fully into effect. In 2021, the German government agreed to require new heaters to run on …

Renovation requirements in the EU's buildings directive can do more than anything else to address energy poverty, but without specific policies to help the most vulnerable people and households they could backlash badly, write Anna Bajomi, Caroline Simpson and Brook Riley.

Tackling massive emissions from buildings has Brussels pushing for higher renovation rates, a measure deeply unpopular with Italians, many of whom own their flats and who fear their cultural heritage is endangered.

The European Union’s construction industry stands at a crossroads: In its transition to a climate-neutral ecosystem, the incumbent industry is worried that organic replacements are given disproportionate support.