Towards an effective implementation of key legislation in the field of sustainable energy

Topic description

Objective:

Under the ‘Fit for 55’ Package to implement the European Green Deal, the Commission proposed a whole set of new measures to revise the main pieces of climate and energy legislation, notably the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The revisions will make the policy framework for sustainable energy more stringent and ambitious. While the legislative framework offers a good amount of flexibility to Member States to design the policy measures according to their needs and framework conditions, accurate monitoring, projecting and evaluation are essential elements of implementation. Importantly, the legislation is strongly interrelated and needs to be implemented and reported in an integrated, consistent way.

With these challenges in mind, the topic aims to support the implementation of the main pieces of legislation in the field of sustainable energy, notably of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Scope A), the Renewable Energy Directive (Scope B) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Scope C).

Under the call 2022, proposals are invited for Scope C, i.e. proposals for actions to support the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive^[1].

Note that policy support actions in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy are also part of other vertical topics.^[2]

Actions under this topic are expected to address one or several of the following areas of work:

• Promote and enable exchange of insights and sharing of best practices within and across Member States.
• Provide support, technical advice and tools for contextualisation and specification of requirements, in general and according to the national and regional context.
• Scope, assess and model the impact of implementation options to comply with EU legislative requirements, thereby contributing to the design of more effective policies.
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation.
• Develop and apply methodologies to more accurately measure, calculate and account for contributions made under the specific policy measures and programmes.
• Develop and support integrated methodologies for areas and sectors that are addressed by different policies and pieces of legislation, notably approaches for integrated collection of data, calculation/accounting, verification, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Monitor and model energy and non-energy impacts of integrated solutions; gather data for the energy and buildings sector.

Scope C - Support for the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

Actions under Scope C are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, in particular those that are subject to major changes or that have been newly introduced under the ‘Fit for 55’ recast.

These are for example provisions related to Minimum Energy Performance standards, National Building Renovation plans, Renovation passports, zero-emission buildings and infrastructure for sustainable mobility.

Note that actions to support the design and implementation of specific policies in the field of buildings are also part of other vertical topics.^[3]

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 2 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

For Scope C

Proposals should result in:

• Improved collaboration of implementing bodies within and across Member States.
• Increased understanding and knowledge in public administrations in charge of implementing European energy legislation.
• More effective implementation of provisions, including better planning, design and evaluation of policy measures.
• More consistent implementation of legal provisions across energy legislation, energy policy and energy sectors.
• Use of appropriate tools and methods that facilitate availability and access to data; improved quality of data and better monitoring.
• Use of more accurate calculation and Measurement & Verification methodologies, including for cross-sector use of energy.
• Improved quality of reporting.
• Improved understanding of potentials and market barriers.
• More effective planning, for example of Heating and Cooling networks.
• Improved understanding and measurement of the impacts and non-energy benefits, also in view of the circular economy.

Proposals should quantify their impacts using the indicators listed below, where relevant, as well as other project-specific performance indicators:

• Primary energy savings/Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Investments in sustainable energy triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

These impacts should be demonstrated during the project and within 5 years after the project lifetime.

[1]Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings (europa.eu), amended by Directive (EU) 2018/ of the European Parliament and of the Council of 30 May 2018 amending Directive 2010/31/EU on the energy performance of buildings and Directive 2012/27/EU on energy efficiency (europa.eu)

[2] For actions addressing the Energy efficiency first principle, please refer to call topic LIFE-2022-CET-EE1st

For actions addressing energy audits, please refer to call topic LIFE-2022-CET-BUSINESS

For actions supporting the integration of renewable energy or waste heat in high temperature district heating, please refer to call topic LIFE-2022-CET-DH

For actions developing support mechanisms for energy communitiess please refer to topic LIFE-2022-CET-ENERCOM

[3] For actions strengthening the enabling framework for deep renovation, please refer to topic LIFE-2022-CET-DEEPRENO

For actions supporting the implementation of Energy Performance Certificates, please refer to topic LIFE-2022-CET-BUILDPERFORM

For actions supporting the implementation of the Smart Readiness Indicator, please refer also to topic LIFE-2022-CET-BUILDPERFORM

For actions supporting the implementation of provisions related to heat pumps, please refer to topic LIFE-2022-CET-HEATPUMPS