The ‘Implementing the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) 2016’ report, published by Concerted Action Energy Performance of Buildings (CA EPBD) at the end of April, highlights important advances in implementing the EPBD and analyses and compares implementation of the Directive across the 28 EU Member States and Norway.
In his introduction, report editor Professor Eduardo Maldonado from the University of Porto noted that it was already evident that the EPBD had been a success story in many respects. He said that Member States had improved their minimum energy efficiency requirements for buildings and introduced certification, adding that energy performance certificates (EPC) had become commonplace and were now a tool to identify priorities for renovation of existing building stock.
However, he also noted that the EPBD had shown quite a few shortcomings, some of which resulted from good ideas that Member States had simply failed to implement, e.g., enforcement and quality control, taking advantage of EPC databases for policymaking, display of EPCs in public buildings, and so on.
The report consists of two parts: the first outlines the main accomplishments and remaining challenges on a selection of major topics covered by the EPBD, while the second provides a detailed country-by-country overview of implementation.
Maldonado said that he hoped that the facts and lessons described in the report would enable the European Commission, the European Parliament and Member States to produce a third, more effective and more realistic version of the EPBD in a year or two from now.