Clean energy and the construction sector

Unpublished

(From ec.europa.eu)

The European construction industry alone provides 18 million direct jobs in Europe and creates 9% of GDP. It has the potential to respond to a number of economic and societal challenges, such as jobs, growth and the need for increased use of clean energy sources.

Yesterday, the Commission proposed a set of measures which support the objectives of the Energy Union and can help the modernisation of the construction sector and its workforce. The measures in focus for construction are digitisation, skills, internal market functioning and development of new solutions to foster the Circular economy in the sector. In particular, the Commission will:

  • work on common principles and rules in public procurement to foster digitisation in the construction industry to improve productivity and value for money (digitalise building/product characteristics, e.g. energy performance)
  • tackle skills shortages, including in the construction sector, focusing on energy efficiency and digital skills ("Blueprints for Sectoral Cooperation on Skills)
  • ensure better coherence of internal market and energy efficiency legislation that affects it, based on the outcomes of the ongoing fitness check
  • launch a new Ecodesign Working Plan for 2016-2019, which includes actions on energy efficiency and circular economy aspects for buildings-related products such as lifts, photovoltaic panels and building automation controls
  • further improve the functioning of the internal market for construction products, for which a consultation process with stakeholders is ongoing, possibly leading to a revision of the Construction Products Regulation
  • present a voluntary EU framework to assess the environmental performance of buildings, support initiatives to foster investments in new and/or innovative construction and demolition waste recycling infrastructure and work on principles and rules for the design of buildings to generate less construction and demolition waste and facilitate materials re-use and recycling

More information:

Memo - Putting energy efficiency first

Staff working document - Accelarting clean energy in buildings