The European Commission adopted today an Energy Efficiency plan that aims at bridging the gap towards the EU’s 20% energy savings commitment. Unfortunately we have to report that this plan does not really show the required commitment to deliver the full potential of energy and cost savings to European consumers.
The EU already has in place a number of useful instruments to improve energy efficiency and save energy. In particular, product energy efficiency requirements adopted under the Ecodesign of Energy Using Products Directive - the main target of our campaign - are a powerful tool to cut the energy use of products and reduce energy costs for consumers. This is particularly important now, at a time of escalating energy prices, not to mention climate change concerns.
While it's good to know that the EU Commission pins a lot of hopes on the Ecodesign Policy among other energy efficiency tools, all recent assessments show that these existing instruments are not delivering up to their potential. Ecodesign requirements for boilers and water heaters - an important example because they have the largest potential to deliver energy savings - are suffering repeated postponements. Also, there is often little coherence and coordination between Ecodesign measures and other legislation on energy efficiency.
Rather than simply adding new measures to the existing set of policies, we think the Commission should propose a coherent legislative framework and in particular binding energy savings targets to ensure we achieve a much higher level of political commitment to drive the implementation of the legislation forward.
But we are not the only ones to be disappointed. The Greens of the European Parliament have called this a "plan for inaction" on energy efficiency, while the Liberal Democrat (ALDE) group has labelled it a "betrayal of Europe's interests". UK Lib Dem Chris Davies said the "Commission has today demonstrated all the courage and conviction of a rabbit caught in headlights and about to be run over."
More details on today's announcements can be found here - BBC news coverage. And the press release from our campaign partners, the European Environmental Bureau.