Energy Data Insights: The Missing "Smart Step" to Better Building Performance

A large and necessary step in achieving the Paris Agreement requires a transition to a highly efficient building stock in terms of real energy performance. This is perhaps nowhere more true than in Europe, where it is often stated that "all buildings built before 1990 are inefficient" and that up to 75% need renovating in order to reach a higher energy efficiency standard. In order to decarbonise EU building stock by 2050, a vision laid out in the Clean Energy for All Europeans communication (2016), the majority of buildings must be highly energy efficient, meaning they should comply with an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) label A. Unfortunately, this might prove more difficult than expected. New research from the BPIE shows that although building performance is constantly improving in the EU, only after 2010 was the average building was built to an efficient standard (0.49 W/m2 K for the building envelope) in the European Union. That means only 3% of building stock in the EU does actually qualifies for the A-label, so 97% (not 75% as typically stated) should therefore be upgraded.