Facts & figures

The role of energy savings in buildings in the European recovery plan:

Overall spending for the total recovery plan is € 200 billion (1.5% of EU GDP). This is made up of budgetary expansion by Member States of € 170 billion and EU funding in support of immediate actions of the order of € 30 billion.
€ 1 billion of these funds is set aside for public-private partnerships to promote the development of technologies and systems that will radically reduce energy consumption in buildings.
The EU urges its Member States to use vehicles such as the promotion of high energy efficiency standards in building, energy certification and a reduction of property tax for buildings with good energy performance.
In addition to the budgetary expansion, the European Commission will invest €105 billion in green projects under the EU cohesion policy. Member States can use up to 4% of these funds for energy efficiency (€4.2 billion).

The EU aims to cut its energy consumption by 20% by 2020. Andris Piebalgs, former EU Energy Commissioner, says: “The objective of a 20% improvement in energy efficiency in the EU by 2020 is, in my view, the single most important energy security policy that we could make.”
According to a report by Ecofys, 460 million tonnes of CO2 can be saved annually by refurbishing buildings to be energy efficient. Europe's dependence on energy imports will be reduced and building owners will be able save around € 270 billion on their energy bills. On top of this, the industry estimates that 500,000 jobs could be created.

The EU Commission has launched the Build UP web portal to help cut energy consumption in buildings.