Study for the Committee of the Regions: Ensuring the Renovation Wave becomes a success, also from a local and regional perspective.

Milieu is very pleased to work on another project for the Committee of the Regions, this time related to the Renovation Wave. Buildings are responsible for around 40% of energy consumption in the EU. The overall strategic commitment of the EU to climate neutrality, therefore necessitates drastic improvements to the energy efficiency of both private and public building stock. Furthermore, renovation of building stock offers other, wide ranging benefits from addressing energy poverty to creating employment in a period of economic recession due to the COVID-19 pandemic, putting it at the heart of the wider strategic vision of the EU, namely the Green Deal.

The European Commission published a Roadmap for the Renovation Wave initiative in May 2020 and stated that it plans to publish a strategic communication in the last quarter of 2020. The upcoming Renovation Wave will aim to boost renovation and address the challenges which inhibit the massification of renovation in the EU. The local and regional authorities are at the heart of these efforts and are one of the most important actors when it comes to the implementation of policies regarding the renovation of the building stock in their constituencies. Against this background, the Committee of the Regions has launched a study to identify the challenges and needs of local and regional authorities related to renovation, and how the upcoming Renovation Wave can respond to these needs.