Glass For Europe Press Release - "Without Stronger Efforts To Foster The Deep Renovation Of Buildings, Europe Will Only Continue Wasting Precious Energy"

Glass for Europe released the following statement regarding the EC's proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive on 22 June: "Glass for Europe deplores the lack of ambition emanating from the Commission proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive also released on 22 June. Although the political objective of increasing Europe's rational use of energy by way of reducing energy demand in key sectors such as buildings is very much welcome, the measures laid down in the proposal are clearly insufficient for the EU to achieve its current target of saving 20% of energy consumption by 2020. Despite the tremendous potential of deep building renovation in cutting CO2 emissions, reducing energy demand, creating growth & jobs, the EC is once again missing a good opportunity to propose concrete & robust measures to cut building-related CO2 emissions," says Bertrand Cazes, secretary general of Glass for Europe. "Reducing Europe's energy bill & engaging the transition to a low carbon economy is undoubtedly a difficult challenge. What is sure, however, is that without more concrete actions to back the nice objectives of cutting building related CO2 emissions, which were laid down in the Road Map for a Low-Carbon Economy by 2050, Europe will only continue wasting precious energy," he added. Buildings account for 40% of Europe's energy use & the deep renovation of existing buildings could save 32% of Europe's primary energy consumption. Glass for Europe therefore regrets the absence of binding targets on building renovation, the loose commitment on public buildings & the lack of new & inventive measures to unleash the giant, but still dormant energy-efficiency potential of buildings. Concrete measures to support the uptake of energy-efficient solutions, such as the design of a window energy labelling scheme for Europe, are needed rapidly. Glass for Europe has four members: AGC Glass Europe, NSG-Group, Saint-Gobain Glass and Sisecam-Trakya Cam and works in association with Guardian. Altogether, these five companies represent 90% of Europe's flat glass production. Glass for Europe firmly believes that state-of-the-art glass can play a vital role in achieving the EU's energy saving targets and promotes ambitious mechanisms to support the market uptake of energy-efficient glass technologies.