Yes of the European Parliament to the directive on green houses: what will the Italian government do?
Vote in the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy on the directive on green houses: 49 votes in favour, 18 against and six abstentions. Text approved without significant changes
More ambitious goals but more flexibility. This is the ratio followed by the Industry, Research and Energy Commission (Itre) of the European Parliament when it first said yes, with 49 votes in favour, 18 against and six abstentions , to the proposal for the revision of the directive on green houses , on energy of buildings .
CLASS E BY 2030 AND CLASS D BY 2033
By 2030 buildings will have to reach energy class E, while by 2033 class D. There has therefore been no change compared to the compromise defined in recent days. The new regulations aim to reduce the environmental impact of buildings for residential purposes. The latter are responsible for over a third of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU, which means that reducing their impact is an essential step to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
HOW THE PARTIES VOTED
No surprises from the parliamentary groups. FdI, Lega and FI voted against while the Democratic Party voted in favour , as did the Greens and the four representatives of the Left group. The majority forces promise to battle the legislation, so that it is "radically changed". For the leader of the League Matteo Salvini it is " a patrimonial masquerade ". The position of Forza Italia, for which it is necessary "to avoid ideological drifts in Europe", is more open to dialogue.
ALL THE DEAD LINES OF THE GREEN HOMES DIRECTIVE
The text of the directive does not only concern residential buildings. For non-residential buildings , the deadline is brought forward compared to buildings for residential purposes: publicly owned buildings will have to reach class E from 2027 and class D from 2030. Furthermore , the obligation to build new zero-emission buildings is brought forward to 2028 Furthermore, solar energy systems must be installed on buildings by 31 December 2028.
ALL DEROGATIONS
The EU Parliament has confirmed the exemptions provided for by the directive on historic buildings and buildings with a high artistic value (of which our country is rich). For example, the following will be exempt from renovation work for energy efficiency : residential buildings of particular artistic and architectural or historical value, places of worship, temporary buildings. Second homes used for less than four months a year and autonomous ones that have an area of less than 50 square meters will also be able to benefit from exemptions. Furthermore, the Commission of the European Parliament has confirmed that all member countries will be able to inform the European Union of any objective and valid reasons that prevent the jump in energy class and stop at the level that will be technically achievable. This derogation can only be used for 22% of the properties and cannot be extended beyond 1 January 2037.
CASE GREEN DIRECTIVE: THE NEXT STEPS
The next steps of the directive are the plenary vote of the European Parliament, scheduled for March 13-16 . Subsequently it will be the turn of the Trilogue, the negotiations between Parliament, the Commission and the EU Council to reach the approval of the final version and the publication of the directive in the Official Journal . And then, the decisive step: the transposition of the member countries. The directive is part of the "Fit for 55", the European reform package which aims to reduce net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 and achieve climate neutrality by 2050.
GREEN HOUSES: WE ACT FIRST ON THE MOST ENERGIVING BUILDINGS
As per EU legislation , the individual member countries will implement the directive , with paths that could be different based on the specificities of the individual countries. First of all, however, action will have to be taken on the 15% of the most energy-intensive buildings . In Italy there are more than 1.8 million residential buildings, out of a total of 12 million, which occupy the last energy class (class G). “Apart from the directive, however, the redevelopment of our building heritage is an industrial policy issue and must have a broad scope, there must be long-term programs – said the president Ance Federica Brancaccio -. It will be necessary to find a policy to support these objectives; now the directive seems to give a wide opening to the issue of funds”.
THE FINANCIAL SUPPORT FUND
This momentous reform of Europe's building stock cannot happen without a financial support structure. Among the hypotheses is the creation of an "Energy performance renovation fund", a European fund dedicated to national building efficiency.
THE ITALIAN GOVERNMENT ASKS FOR GRADUALITY ON GREEN HOMES
The primary objective of the government is to increase the gradualness of the measure. "The Italian reality – said the Minister of the Environment and Energy Security, Gilberto Pichetto Fratin during the broadcast of Rai Radio1 Radio Anch'io – has a characteristic that differentiates it from all of Europe where there is no Italian micro-ownership and household savings on the property. 85% of Italians own a home . We think that differentiation from country to country should lead to a more gradual assessment . Now let's see how the EU Parliament goes, then there will be the trialogue. Here there will be a negotiation where the role of the States returns very strongly".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/si-delleuroparlamento-alla-direttiva-sulle-case-green-cosa-fara-il-governo-italiano/ on Fri, 10 Feb 2023 15:09:33 +0000.