One of the European Union’s most ambitious goals in the fight against climate change is to reduce emissions to zero by 2050. To achieve this, the Commission employes all the tools at its disposal, including the proposal of new regulations and directives. One of these directives regards the amendment of the Directive 2010/31/EU (already amended in 2018 and 2020) that focuses on the energy performance of buildings.
Given the current energy crisis faced by Europe, the discussion on buildings’ energy efficiency is pivotal within the European Commission. Among the main motivations behind the European Commission’s presentation of the Directive, in addition to zero emissions of pollutants, is the fight against energy poverty. In fact, although the issue is not sufficiently addressed by individual states and public opinion, it is taken very seriously by the European institutions.
The directive gives several tailored indications to Member States and also provides, among other indications, specific steps on how to reduce the number of buildings belonging to the less efficient energy class. In the Directive, specific references are made regarding people living in energy poverty and call on Member States to provide economic aid and support to the families struggling the most with energy poverty.
Finally, as we have also seen in a previous article, energy poverty and the conditions in which many European citizens find themselves are increasingly the focus of attention of European policy-makers. It is now up to the Member States to tackle this urgent matter.
