Obligation to retrofit all public buildings will now be limited to central government buildings only
The original Energy Efficiency Directive was set to be the driving force behind a huge public sector retrofit market by obliging governments to retrofit 2.5% of all public buildings by floor area (council housing inclusive) each year. However, the final EU legislation was decided to only apply this commitment to central government buildings.
It was said that the scale back was due to the governments of many member states (UK included) being apprehensive about making budget commitments in the current economic climate.
In addition, the directive also downgraded targets for the overall energy efficiency improvements from the set 20% energy usage reduction for each state by 2020 contained in the draft directive to a reduced target of 17% by 2020.
