A final agreement was reached last week on two key EU energy efficiency policies: the revision of the energy efficiency legislation for buildings and the revision of the EU A-G energy labelling scheme.

On the energy label, the dispute (which we wrote about here and then here) between the European Parliament and some Member States led by the Swedish Presidency of the EU was resolved with a rather empty compromise. This has left many unhappy although it is arguably a damage limitation exercise from the European Parliament against some seriously aggressive lobbying from white goods manufacturers.
The decision in the end was to continue piling up additional classes on top of the initial well-known A-G scale. Energy classes A+ and A++ had already been introduced for fridges some years ago. Now for all product categories, the label will be opened to A+, A++ and even A+++.
The more reasonable option of "rescaling" existing models - in order to ensure that the A class remains the top reference by becoming increasingly tougher to reach, and that there is a real distinction between different classes – has always been opposed by the white goods industry and has been eventually postponed to the next label revision process, in 2014, despite the fact it would actually have been quite urgent.
This risks making the label ineffective on consumers’ purchase decisions because it means that - in the case of fridges - the most efficient products will be labelled A+++ but the most inefficient products on the market will actually be labelled A, as hardly any product still fall under categories below A, such as B or C (these classes were defined 15 years ago!). This is clearly confusing for consumers.  

The only solution to this problem would have been to adopt an efficiency label that is regularly updated. Unfortunately too many policy makers seem to prefer to listen to the manufacturers' concerns about their fears of not being able to sell their outdated and inefficient products, rather than to consumers, environmental organisations and retailers worried about accurate consumer information and the future of our planet.

A close-ended scale that is regularly updated to reflect technical developments has been opposed by some manufacturers which feared that downgraded products can not be sold anymore.

On top of that, EU decision-makers were not able to agree on a public procurement clause, which would have meant that our governments and cities would have had to buy only energy efficient products. The mandatory mention of the energy rating in product advertising is also not as good as we hoped: it will be displayed only when product advertisements already mention technical data.

You can find a position of a group of environmental and consumer NGOs here (circulated to decision-makers just before their final decision) and a background paper by BUND (in German here. There is also some analysis on the Stop Climate Change website of the Green Party and a WWF press release.

On buildings, a political agreement on the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (so-called ‘EPBD’) was reached last Wednesday. It still needs to be confirmed December 7th in the Council of Ministers. The new legislation calls for near zero energy buildings, which sounds good, but the agreement reached seems to be far from what environmental campaign groups have been calling for. It's particularly clear that the huge energy savings potential of Europe’s existing buildings has not been tapped into as much as it would have been needed, and that this will have a dramatic impact on the possibility of reaching Europe's energy conservation targets. Two weeks ahead of the start of the Copenhagen summit, this is not great news.

EU Officials bump up energy efficiency for domestic appliances but cave in to industry pressure on energy labels

[Brussels, 1 April 2009] - European environmental NGOs (EEB, Inforse-Europe, Friends of the Earth Europe, Natuur en Milieu and ECOS) welcome this week’s vote by Member States on energy efficiency measures under the Ecodesign of Energy-Using Products (EuP) Directive [1] but fear the level of ambition is insufficient in a time of climate crisis. In addition, EU officials have rushed through a rather confusing revision of the format for the Energy Label for household appliances which will now corrupt the simple A-G system that is currently in place and widely recognised throughout Europe. [2]

The votes on fridges [3], televisions [4] and washing machines will force manufacturers to produce more energy efficient appliances that have the potential to cut CO2 emissions by about 20 Million tonnes (Mt) per year by 2020 (like taking up to 10 million cars off the road each year). However, consumers would have saved even more on their energy bills if the adopted measures had reached their full potential of 30 Mt of CO2 savings. In addition, EU officials caved in to industry pressure and avoided rescaling the famous A-G Energy Label, instead choosing a new system that runs the risk of misleading consumers and has not been tested.

Edouard Toulouse, Ecodesign Officer at environmental group ECOS said: "An ambitious Ecodesign policy and a crystal-clear Energy Label for consumers are vital tools to make our lives sustainable and bring CO2 emissions down in the most cost-effective way." He added: "Televisions and fridges were very iconic tests for these policies. We expected bolder ambition." NGOs are also worried that the two products to come next under these policies - boilers and water heaters, with enormous CO2-cut potential and the same level of emissions as the transport sector - may not deliver enough [5].

Nathalie Cliquot, Product Policy Officer at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) added: "Industry pressure prevented EU decision-makers from going for the greenest options and ensuring energy inefficient products are clearly flagged with simple A-G labels." She continued: "At least there will be a serious review of these instruments in 3 to 4 years, but in the meantime we must continue to explain why these policies are so important through the ‘coolproducts’ NGO campaign." [6]

Contacts:

Nathalie Cliquot, Product policy officer at the European Environmental Bureau (EEB)
, +32 (0)2 289 10 97 (French, English)

Edouard Toulouse, Ecodesign officer at ECOS (coordinating the input of Environmental NGOs in these policies)
, +32 (0)2 289 1096 (French, English)

Gunnar Boye Olesen, INFORSE-Europe
, +45 86 22 70 00 (Danish, English)

Notes for Editors:

[1] The EuP and Energy Labelling directives aim at setting minimum environmental performance and consumer information requirements on products sold in the EU. The EU aims to become 20% more energy efficient by 2020. Ambitious eco-design rules have the potential to cut Europe’s CO2 emissions by 450 million tons per year by 2020 - equivalent to the emissions of all European cars.

[2] The EU has revised the well known A-G energy label layout and introduced it for new product categories. Energy Labelling has been one of the most visible and successful EU-wide tools to inform consumers and achieve energy efficiency. However, the current revision adds confusing new classes named "A-20%", "A-40%", instead of rescaling the label to reflect how products have meanwhile become more efficient, so that the "A" grade remains the top of the class.

[3] Fridges and freezers. Despite technological progress in the past, substantial energy savings are still achievable. Also, the growth in appliance size and stock has annihilated part of the previous gains. The current electricity consumption of the domestic fridges and freezers stock on the market is 100TWh.

[4] Televisions: The environmental impact of TVs is an increasing concern. Without very serious policies, the yearly energy consumption of the European stock is expected to increase by 70 TWh in the next 10 years - representing as much as the overall household consumption of Italy. Lack of recyclability and recycling of flat screens is also a serious environmental issue.

[5] For more information on the large potential for energy savings and CO2 emission reductions in the heating products sector, please see this NGO briefing: "EU Ecodesign policy for boilers and water heaters, a huge and underestimated opportunity for climate policy "

[6] A coalition of environmental NGOs launched the "coolproducts" campaign on 12th March 2009. On the day of the launch, partner groups organised a "penguin refugee camp" in front of the European Commission. In addition, Avaaz delivered a petition signed by 116,829 citizens (which has meanwhile increased to 140,000) to the EU Commission asking for more stringent energy efficiency requirements for products sold in the EU.