showCASE No. 112: Energising the Renovation Wave Strategy. What does is mean for Poland?
Editorial
Breaking with a tradition of dedicating the December edition of showCASE to an assessment of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP) results due to the summit’s postponement on account of the COVID-19 pandemic, in the present issue we discuss ‘A Renovation Wave for Europe’ strategy and its implications for Poland.
Polish energy transformation, as in most of the EU countries, has so far failed to recognise the role of buildings in the greening of the economy. Against this background, the implementation of the Renovation Wave in Poland creates a unique opportunity to modernise and reconfigure Polish building and heating strategies as well as to benefit from synergy with the dedicated EU funds.
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CASE Analysis
Written by: Karolina Zubel
A Renovation Wave for Europe – Greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives’ (COM(2020)662) is new strategy aimed at doubling the renovation rate of existing building stock across the European Union (EU) in the next decade that was announced earlier (October 14th) this year. By improving energy efficiency refurbishments and installation of zero-emission heat sources, as well as ‘smart home’ technologies and appliances, the Renovation Wave strategy is to be one of the ways for the EU Member States (MS) to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 in accordance with the broader European Green Deal objectives.
According to the strategy’s authors, European residential and commercial buildings are responsible for 36% of greenhouse gas emissions across the EU. Hence, putting the building stock at the centre of climate action will help to meet the 2030 targets for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, increasing energy efficiency, and developing renewable energy sources (RES). This will lead to a change in the energy mix i.e., in the district heating. For the heat pump industry this is an equivalent of becoming a leader in the generation of heat and cold for buildings as the Commission is set to increase the RES target to approximately 40% by 2030. The requirement for a minimum level of RES in buildings will probably be established as well. In Polish conditions, this will mean a fast greening of our individual and system heating.
It is worth noting that the Commission's plan also includes extending the operation of the mandatory CO2 emission allowance under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) to the entire heating sector. This will increase energy production costs from fossil fuels (i.e., coal and natural gas) for individual buildings. In the end, the Renovation Wave is a result of the strategy to integrate the energy sectors in order to increase the EU's CO2 reduction target by 2030.
