New standards to reduce carbon emissions in the building sector will not be enough to meet the EU’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets, according to a recent report by Building Performance Institute Europe (BPIE), an independent expertise centre. EURACTIV France reports.

Europe is not setting the bar high enough to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, according to the new report, which was published as Europe is struggling with a huge increase in energy prices. “Unless all EU member states become more ambitious, energy and carbon emission reductions in the building sector are likely to be insufficient to meet Europe’s 2050 decarbonisation targets,” said Oliver Rapf, BPIE’s executive director.

The report published on Tuesday (18 January), titled “Ready for carbon neutrality in 2050?”, analysed six geographical areas and countries – Flanders, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland and France. The result is clear: only France and Flanders have implemented measures that are considered sufficiently ambitious in at least one of the four priority areas – phasing out fossil fuels, limiting carbon emissions, setting a minimum share for renewables, and implementing binding standards to limit energy consumption.

“The findings of this report suggest that the decarbonisation of new buildings in the EU is proceeding too slowly and inconsistently,” the paper says. In particular, it points to discrepancies between countries in the performance standards of new buildings.

“There are realistic doubts about the ability of current policy frameworks to move new buildings consistently towards carbon neutrality by 2050,” the report continues.

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