European Green Houses Directive: climate neutrality by 2050

The EU Parliament approves the directive that designs the green future of housing

The Green Homes Directive (or EPBD, Energy performance of buildings directive) is a legislative initiative of the European Union on the energy performance of buildings which marks an important step towards the realization of the EU's objectives in terms of emissions reduction, in line with the commitments of the Paris Agreement and the European Green Deal.

The Directive aims to reduce emissions from the building sector by 60% by 2030 to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. In this sense, each EU country will have to adapt residential buildings until achieving complete decarbonisation.

Times and methods

Each member state is called upon to define the interventions suitable for achieving, by 2050, a zero-emissions building stock.

In line with the nature of the directive, each state establishes ways to reduce the consumption of its building stock according to the intermediate deadlines set by the directive:

• newly built private buildings will have to be zero-emission starting from 2030 and public buildings too from 2028;
• residential buildings will have to reduce their average energy consumption by 16% by 2030, and by 20-22% by 2035;
• non-residential buildings will have to reduce their energy consumption average of 16% by 2030 and 26% by 2033.

Each state will draw up the national restructuring plan, indicating a roadmap and objectives to follow, which must be updated every 5 years.

By 2040, methane gas boilers will have to be totally eliminated and, starting next year, member countries will no longer be able to offer tax incentives for the purchase or installation of these heating systems.

Among the fundamental interventions, thermal insulation, the replacement of fixtures, the adoption of more efficient heating systems, such as hybrid or solar thermal heating systems, and the electrification of heating systems stand out.

The new EU Directive provides some exceptions and does not apply to agricultural and historic buildings, and member countries can also decide to exclude buildings protected for particular architectural or historical value, temporary buildings, churches and places of worship.

New Buildings

Buildings must be designed and constructed in such a way as to minimize their environmental impact throughout their entire life cycle, from construction to demolition. This includes the efficient use of resources, waste minimization and the use of sustainable materials.

New buildings will have to be energy efficient, i.e. consume the least possible amount of energy for heating, cooling, lighting and other services, thus reducing greenhouse gas emissions and also bringing significant savings on energy costs.

The Directive requires new buildings to be renewable energy ready, which means they must be designed to easily integrate renewable energy technologies in the future, for example through the pre-installation of infrastructure for solar panels or heat pumps.

Renovation of Existing Buildings

Achieving the final goaland it cannot depend only on new green buildings, but renovations play an important role.

Each Member State will have to adopt a national plan which provides for the progressive reduction of the energy consumption of residential buildings through the renovation of the existing building stock. The only constraint will be to guarantee that at least 55% of the reduction in average primary energy consumption is achieved through the renovation of the buildings with the worst performance, the most energy-intensive ones.

According to the Directive, existing buildings that undergo major renovations will have to comply with the same energy efficiency standards required for new buildings.

In suitable existing buildings, the installation of solar panels will take place gradually starting from 2027.

Italian situation

In Italy, over 82% of buildings are residential, i.e. 12 million out of a total of 14.5 million, 6 buildings out of 10 have an average age of 59 years and a poor energy class, G or E. (Source: Istat, ENEA)

By 2050, buildings with the least performing classes F and G will have to be subject to renovation works aimed at improving insulation and energy efficiency.

According to the ENEA Superbonus report, the subsidized efficiency interventions concerned 480,815 buildings, or approximately less than 5% of the real estate portfolio affected by the directive, with a total value of the works completed over 113 billion euros.

The EU Commission has made it known that it will not provide new funds: it will therefore be possible to count exclusively on allocations such as the Pnrr, the Social Climate Fund and the Cohesion Funds.

The directive will admit among the forms of support those that guarantee tax reductions such as tax deductions and credits. The EPBD also mentions the forms of support that allow savings directly in citizens' bills.

Next steps

The Green Homes Directive will complete its legislative process with its adoption by the Council and will officially enter into force twenty days after its publication in the Official Journal. Furthermore, by 2028, the European Commission will review it again for any necessary corrections.

From its entry into force, Member States will have two years to transpose the Directive and apply it using the national and European resources available.

The European Commission estimates that by 2030, 275 billion euros of investments will be needed per year for the energy transformation of the building stock, i.e. 152 billion per year more than current resources.