Delaying and watering down home renovations is short-sighted and unfair to citizens

 
If governments undermine the potential of energy standards for buildings proposed by the European Commission, they will leave Europeans chained to skyrocketing energy bills, make the continent more dependent on gas imports and ignore the climate crisis, writes Oliver Rapf.

Oliver Rapf is the Executive Director of Buildings Performance Institute Europe.

Imagine governments had at hand a solution to tackle the current energy crisis, potentially reduce energy bills permanently, help fight climate change and slash our dependency on imported gas from Russia and other countries.

Just consider this solution exists and is even being debated right now by energy ministers in the Council of the EU. All good news, right?

Not quite so. Some Member States are trying to water down this solution which would leave us chained to skyrocketing energy bills, unacceptable levels of energy poverty and ever-higher quantities of greenhouse gases emitted from our energy-demanding houses. (...)