A widespread consensus emerged at the Coolproducts conference in the European Parliament last week on the need for strengthening European Union (EU) energy saving legislation and to introduce new measures, such as a mandatory energy saving targets. And on making sure the requirements being set for products such as boilers, water heaters and other energy using products covered in the Ecodesign of Energy Using Products Directive (EuP) – the main subject of the Coolproducts campaign – are ambitious.
Over one hundred participants from industry, environmental organisations, consumer groups, EU institutions and specialist media took part in the event, which also saw the launch of the Cool Products, Warm Homes Manifesto by a large group of organisations (and now open to sign-ons from civil society, business and policy makers).
The European Commission was broadly supportive of the Manifesto demands. Emmanuel Cabau from the EU Commission’s Directorate General on Energy (DG TREN) said: “The Commission is in line with the Manifesto”. He did admit that the currently regulatory framework is insufficient and needs to be strengthened and added that all the Manifesto points were being considered as part of the EU’s Energy Efficiency Action Plan revision.
Udo Wasser of European Heating Industry (EHI) association went further. “The Manifesto could have been written by us,” he said, specifying that this was definitely true for the basic five points of the Manifesto. He also added that if the money that has been invested by European governments during this financial crisis in renewing the car park, had been invested instead in getting people to switch to more efficient boilers boilers across Europe, “we would achieve all our targets”. Even more strikingly, Wasser appeared to back the idea of a ban on inefficient, “non condensing” boilers throughout Europe – a move environmentalists support but which the European Commission is however resisting.
Empty consensus?
Of course, this does not mean that environmentalists, the EU Commission and the industry are all saying the same thing. Environmentalists and Members of the European Parliament are trying to push things further. There is also another big challenge: to convince some very reluctant Member States that pushing for strong EU energy savings targets in products and throughout the economy is a good idea.
The support from a cross-party group of Members of the European Parliament is in any case crucial and is likely to have an strong impact on the likelihood of success of this campaign. Peter Liese, a German conservative MEP, supports a binding target and would like to introduce tax incentives to encourage consumers to save energy. Anni Podimata, Greek socialist MEP, stressed the need to close regulatory gaps and establish a coherent EU legislative framework. Fiona Hall, a British liberal democrat MEP, said that although policy makers do not like to talk in these terms, we need more regulation in this area.
As stressed by John Hontelez, secretary general of the European Environmental Bureau, environmental organisations are actually asking for something new and bold: a binding and absolute 20% primary energy saving target, which would be twice the current non legally binding EU commitment of 2006 to achieve 20% savings compared to business as usual.
Hontelez also added that another wide civil society coalition, the Spring Alliance - made up of social organisations and trade unions, also backs a similar target in its own Manifesto. He said there is a widespread belief across a very wide range of organisations, that an energy efficiency revolution in the economy can be carried out in way that is beneficial for society as a whole.
Eco Design plans need more ambition
The Coolproducts campaign’s own Edouard Toulouse warned that the very large potential emission reductions from Eco Design of Energy Using Products (EuP) Directive were being weakened by national policy makers who were trying to accommodate too many concerns from too many sides, such as those around inefficient electric water heaters – which the French nuclear industry is very keen on – or those wanting to retain inefficient boilers in certain buildings that can’t accommodate super efficient ones without some kind of adjustment.
In response, Andre Brisaer – the EU Commission official in charge of the unit implementing the EuP – said he hoped in the future we would be able speak of “Cool Policy”, when referring to this law, because of its ambition in delivering energy efficiency in products. But he warned about the need to make sure there are no significant impacts on functionality and affordability of products regulated under this process.
Monique Goyens, director general of the European consumers’ organisation BEUC reassured the audience that consumers are broadly supportive of this policy. “Consumers are willing to become green, even if prices are a bit higher, and even at times of economic crisis. But – they need to be enabled to act sustainably” she said.
“Don’t be afraid of consumers, but help them make the right choices,” she added.
Reinforcing this positive message, Dirk Jepsen of German think tank Okopol said that recent research carried out by his organisation showed it would be possible to go much further than we are doing now in the EuP process, and still be cost-efficient, saving money for consumers (although in some cases there would need to be some support to help low income people make the initial purchase of a new super-efficient product).
The way forward
The MEP Claude Turmes, a Green Party member from Luxembourg, closed the conference stressing we need to move away from the “empty consensus” on energy efficiency, where everybody seems to agree but nothing of any real substance ever seems to happen. He added energy efficiency policy at EU level is even more crucial now that it has become clear that the “ETS (emissions trading system) will not deliver”.
Presentations from the conference can be dowloaded here (note this will dowload a 5MB zip file to your computer)