With a crucial vote fast approaching on the EU’s key piece of building legislation, a coalition representing 35 organisations is calling on politicians to seize a once-in-a-generation opportunity to eliminate carbon emissions from Europe’s building stock.

Europe’s buildings account for around 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO2 emissions. Currently, EU policy only addresses the operational emissions of buildings but to support total decarbonisation of the EU building stock, policy must evolve to cover both operational and embodied emissions, known as Whole Life Carbon. Without addressing both sources of emissions it is inconceivable that the EU will be able to achieve its climate targets.

This is why WorldGBC has convened a coalition of 35 built environment stakeholder groups, representing over 5,000 organisations from across the building value chain, to call for high level ambition as Parliamentary negotiations on the Energy Performance of Building Directive (EPBD) enter their final stage.

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