18 Feb 2014

2030 climate and energy framework: the Parliament calls for heat strategy

Parliament’s joint Environment (ENVI) and Energy (ITRE) Committee recognised on January the 9th the importance of heating and cooling in today’s vote on a 2030 framework for climate and energy policies. Heating and cooling represent over 45% of the final energy consumption in the European Union compared to 20% for electricity, 26% transport and 9% for ‘non-energy’ use (IEA, 2011) yet they remain largely neglected by EU policies.

In its joint report, the ENVI-ITRE Committees call on:

• “the EU to consider the full integration of the heating and cooling sector in the pathways towards a sustainable energy system”;
• “the Commission to gather the required data reflecting the sources and the uses of heating and cooling, as well as the distribution of heat to the different groups of final consumers (e.g. residential, industry, tertiary)”;
• “the Member States and the Commission to support readily available efficient heating and cooling solutions”.

The Heat Coalition welcomes the outcome of today’s vote which marks an important step towards an emergence of the European policy on heat. If the European Union is serious about meeting its climate and energy goals, the EU institutions now need to focus on developing legislation which would support and facilitate the development of efficient heating and cooling technologies.

Today, there are numerous solutions on the heat market which are capable of decarbonising the European heat demand in a cost-effective way, facilitating the deployment of renewable energy sources and boosting local economic development. Ahead of the final approval of this report in plenary scheduled in February, the Heat Coalition calls the Commission and Member States to already take Parliament’s voice into account and develop a heat strategy for Europe to evaluate the development opportunities of the heating and cooling market.

To view the full press release, please click here.