The Italian Government and Parliament must immediately implement the provision and accelerate the energy transition of our building heritage.
The revision of the “Green Homes” Directive definitively approved by the EU Council on Friday 12 April is a fundamental piece of the European Green Deal. The legislation aims to promote energy efficiency interventions in the building sector, which in our country still accounts for 20% of national energy-related emissions. A mandatory step if we want to reach the European targets of reduction of emissions by 2030 and 2050 and counteract the energy poverty which still afflicts millions of families today.
Italy can benefit from a strategy of deep renovation of its own buildings, and it is from this perspective that the EPBD (Energy performance of building directive) can support the country in defining the intermediate objectives and strategic actions to be undertaken.
The text specifies that “at least 55% of the reduction in primary energy consumption” must be achieved through the restructuring of “worst performing residential buildings” i.e. those that “fall within the 43% of cases with the lowest energy performance of the national building stock”. Simply put, we’re talking about more five million buildings.
According to Kyoto Club and Legambiente, the green light for the revision of the Directive is certainly good news. However, various provisions must be integrated into the legislation, and various measures must be adopted, the two associations explain in position paper which concerns the transposition of Case Green into the national legislative system.
The doubts raised by the Minister of Economy and Finance, Giancarlo Giorgetti, on the sidelines of the final approval – also considering that Italy had expressed a favorable opinion on the EPBD in the EU Council, before ruling against it during the final vote – are solvable. First, it is important to mention the objective of European Investment Bank (EIB) to increase, by 2025, the share of annual financing that has a positive impact on the climate or environment from the current 30% to 50%. Then there are the green bonds, the European green bonds which in the first quarter of 2024 reached emission levels of 170 billion dollars.
Finally, it is necessary to strengthen efforts in the field of climate finance, and make the public and private sectors work together to mobilize available investments. We agree with the former Prime Minister Mario Draghi when he stated that in the fight against climate change “money is not a problem, if we want to use it well”.
Among the proposals put forward in the document: the introduction of a structure incentives differentiated based on income, the possibility of credit assignment and of discount on invoice for medium-low incomes, the establishment of a bottom for families in energy povertyit stop installations of fossil boilers by 2030the adoption of policies Whole Life Carbon that take into account the reduction of operational and embodied emissions.
According to Giacomo Pellini, communication manager of Kyoto Club“It is essential that the Italian Government and Parliament implement the revision of the EPBD Directive into the legislative system as soon as possible to start the redevelopment of our old and inefficient building stock and support the over two million families who still live in one status of energy poverty. If the annual Italian building renovation rate remains constant, we will not be able to redevelop the over five million buildings with the ‘worst performance’ by 2030, as required by the European provision. In this regard, it is desirable to accelerate the energy transition process of our buildings without waiting any longer and immediately take advantage of the opportunities that the revision of the Green Homes Directive offers to our country”.
“It is clear that in a country in which policies for the redevelopment of the building stock are in fact non-existent, a Directive such as that of Green Houses can play a role of fundamental importance not only in accelerating the redevelopment process, bringing immediate benefits to people and the fight against the climate emergency, but to take the opportunity to introduce tools and regulations that can maximize environmental and social benefits. In this sense it is not only necessary to bring forward the exit from gas boilers to at least 2030, but also to introduce new sustainability parameters such as the choice of materials for redevelopment which should primarily come from innovative production processes. But also seismic safety measures, removal of architectural barriers, green roofs and rainwater recovery”, he declares Katiuscia Eroe, energy manager of Legambiente onlus.
Tags: stop installations gas boilers Legambiente
