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Enigin News - EU Drafting new Energy Efficiency Plan

Enigin News - EU Drafting new Energy Efficiency Plan

THE European Union (EU) is drafting a new energy efficiency action plan to make good on its pledge to combat climate change and reduce its dependency on imported oil and gas.

The revised action plan will try to reinforce the EU's efforts on energy efficiency to help it to reach its goal of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020.

Preliminary results from a study by Ecofys and Fraunhofer ISI, to be published later this month, show that EU policy measures would have to triple to achieve this energy savings target. Meeting the objective would reduce energy bills annually by €78 billion, create one million jobs and save 560Mt of CO2, the study says.

The plan will focus in part on buildings according to the European Commission. It may also be accompanied by legislative proposals, such as a recast of the Energy End-Use Efficiency and Energy Services Directive (ESD), according to the Commission.

Buildings will be at the centre of the new strategy, given that the sector accounts for 40% of Europe's energy consumption. Potential measures range from aiming to renovate a certain number of buildings by equipping them with high efficiency standards to policies to speed up the uptake of smart electricity meters.

Enigin Distributor right across Europe have been helping building owners, business and community leaders to reduce their green house gas emissions while also saving money through saving energy.

One of the main sticking points of the plan has been uneven implementation of measures identified under the 2006 plan, which the revision will seek to address.

A blueprint drafted by the previous Commission in 2009 proposed stripping down the complex action plan to fewer and more targeted actions, but it then decided to pass the file on to the incoming executive instead.

The blueprint targeted the buildings sector with a European Buildings Initiative to stimulate the renovation of 15 million buildings by 2020. It further suggested obliging all member states to set up a National Energy Efficiency Fund to support preferential loans or risk-sharing facilities, for instance.

Among other proposals that have been floated is a European training strategy for an energy-efficiency workforce. This would address the need to have more skilled architects, builders and installers who are capable of carrying out energy-efficiency improvements, as well as certified experts to carry out energy audits.

To discover how your local Enigin Distributor can help you to reduce your energy bill and green house gas emissions, contact them now.

Thursday 2nd September 2010