Three demands to unleash affordable financing for energy-efficient homes

Everyone should be able to live in comfortable and healthy homes. Yet, most of the buildings in the EU are old and do not provide good housing conditions. The walls of our homes are not able to retain or keep out heat, and a lot of energy is consumed to warm up or cool the space. Due to poor energy efficiency, buildings are responsible for over one third of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions and for 40% of the EU’s energy consumption.

The surge in energy prices this year also turned the cold and hot weather into a real threat for many families. People face prohibitive energy bills and are sometimes forced to choose between paying those bills or putting food on the table. All these factors led the EU to launch a new REPowerEU strategy, which aims to increase the EU’s energy efficiency target from 9% to 13%. This means that the EU will be required to increase its annual rate of renovation 15 times, from the current 0.2% to 3% per year. In other words, around 150,000 homes need to be upgraded every week in order to achieve the EU’s decarbonisation goals for 2050.

This challenge is unprecedented. It is, however, achievable if EU institutions, national governments and financial regulators work together to unlock the trillions of private and public funding available to make our homes greener and safer, by reducing their energy consumption and carbon footprint.

Our demands:

1. Make banks play their part

2. Make renovation affordable for everyone

3. Make renovation simple

Read here.