Europe elects a new parliament On 26 May, polls in the European elections closed and the results reveal an incoming European parliament will be the most fragmented in a number of years. Although the European People’s Party (EPP) and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D) are still set to be the largest parties in parliament, […]

WorldGBC urges a pragmatic approach to the sustainable finance taxonomy On 22 February, WorldGBC Europe submitted their response to a consultation from the technical expert group on sustainable finance set up by the European Commission on a classification system – or taxonomy – for environmentally sustainable economic activities. This follows on from the Commission’s legislative proposal on an EU […]

European Commission unveils vision of climate neutral Europe by 2050 On November 28, the European Commission released a Communication outlining their strategic long-term vision for a climate neutral economy by 2050. The strategy covers nearly all EU policies and is in line with the Paris Agreement objective to keep temperature increase to well below 2°C, and pursue […]

New Standards for Green Mortgages Launched On 24 September, the World Green Building Council (WGBC) launched a new report setting out a vision for how mortgage lenders and borrowers can come together to help tackle climate change by improving millions of properties across Europe. The report proposes a new set of standards for property energy performance thresholds […]

Revised Energy Performance of Building Directive set to become Law On 19 June, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844 (EPBD) was published in the EU Official Journal (L156). This will enter into force on  9 July 2018, and Member States will have to transpose the new elements of the Directive into national […]

Revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive Set to Become Law On 19 June, the revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844 (EPBD) was published in the EU Official Journal (L156). This will enter into force on  9 July 2018, and Member States will have to transpose the new elements of the Directive into national […]

European Commission to Produce a Long-Term Climate Strategy On 23 March, EU Ministers instructed the European Commission to produce a long-term climate strategy “by the first quarter of 2019”. The recommendation was contained in the EU summit conclusions and calls on the Commission to ”present a proposal for a Strategy for long-term EU greenhouse gas […]

Member Policy Update Welcome to this months Europe Regional Network’s Policy Update, providing GBC members with the latest news on all things relating to European green building policy. Consultation on the Standardised European Energy Efficiency Mortgage On 12 February, the EU-funded Energy Efficient Mortgage Action Plan (‘EeMAP’) project launched a public consultation on a proposal for a […]

Council Finalise Position on the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive On 26th June, the EU Council agreed their position on a proposal for the revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The agreements of these positions will enable the start of negotiations with the European […]