Renovation Wave, the (feasible?) EU program for the redevelopment of buildings
The EU directive on the Renovation Wave, which has just been released, aims to improve the building stock of the Old Continent, but… The italics of Nunzio Ingiusto
Renovation Wave, or a wave of renewal. The European Commission is calling for 35 million buildings to be redeveloped in 10 years.
Heads of government are urged to get busy because the new directive on renewables will come into force in June. We are working on new standards of hot / cold consumption with low impact energies. The recently released Renovation Wave directive aims to improve the building stock. First of all, because public and private buildings are responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of greenhouse gas emissions, secondly to speed up that energy transition which, on the other hand, moves in an uneven way.
Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice President of the European Green Deal knows this and for this reason he hopes that “Renovation Wave will improve the places where we work, live and study, reducing our impact on the environment and securing new jobs for thousands of Europeans”. Will governments have the ability to get to work? Finding shared solutions is not easy, as we have known for some time. The final objectives, however, are good and there are three: decarbonisation of heating, fight against energy poverty, renovation of schools, hospitals, barracks, administrative offices.
Brussels tells governments to focus on green public procurement. Italy is among the worst-off countries. The ministers of the Environment, the Regions, the Infrastructures, the presidents of the Region, the mayors, the managers of public purchases will have to change ways and times quickly. The initial planned expenditure of around 300 billion euros will be guaranteed by the EU. But if you are not efficient -Conte first of all take note- the money will fly away.
But has the Commission put the turbo? He had never dared so much towards private individuals. Because if he promises money to the public, homeowners don't seem to have thought about it. And the millions of Europeans who live in their own housing are poor. If it goes wrong, the EU makes itself unpleasant.
The Union of Italian Owners is explicit in this regard. With the Renovation, European families and owners are required to renovate their home and properties to meet certain standards. In June 2021 they will be mandatory. Yes, of course, there will be storms and political marathons.
Now it's okay to think about the environment and polluting emissions, but is Europe all the same? If only it were, because the program is ambitious but cannot be implemented consistently across all building segments, from Helsinki to Valletta. And then who, how much and where do Europeans earn? It is known, say the Italian homeowners, that in "a number of Member States the average annual net income of families is less than 10,000 euros". Italian households owning the house are 75%. Someone will have to reason with them, because alone they will hardly call companies for the green deal.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/renovation-wave-il-programma-attuabile-dellue-per-la-riqualificazione-degli-edifici/ on Wed, 21 Oct 2020 05:35:08 +0000.