The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, called on 9 October 2013 for a strategy to provide long-term emissions-cutting and money-saving deep renovations to Europe’s ageing building stock, saying that it could create two million jobs.
Van Rompuy used a video address to tell a conference organised by ‘Renovate Europe’, in Brussels that EU regulations obliging new properties to emit zero net carbon emissions by the next decade are not enough.
“Renovating existing buildings is also essential because 90% of them are here to stay,” he said.
“And deep renovation of existing buildings has also the potential to stimulate innovation, to improve health and to create about two million new direct jobs in the Union by 2020.”
The unusually forthright speech from an EU Council president known for his measured and unassuming approach, was hailed as “a strong statement by a strong player” by one former EU energy policy architect.
“For economies looking for a way to break this cycle of unemployment, this is a good place to start,” Randall Bowie, now an energy efficiency consultant with home insulation company Rockwool, told EurActiv. “They have a big building stock that needs to be renovated, the financing is now there, it is just a question of getting it mobilised.”
Europe’s building stock accounts for around 40% of EU primary energy consumption, and energy efficient ‘deep’ renovations for them could cut energy consumption by up to three quarters and slash bills by the same amount.
