For immediate release
BRUSSELS, Belgium, 20 May 2020 | BPIE – The Buildings Performance Institute Europe has published an analysis of the economic opportunity for Europe’s building sector, which could help mitigate economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings show that the total amount of public funding required to trigger a significant scaling up of the renovation rate and depth would add up to €90 billion annually until 2050, with €76 billion annually allocated in support of building renovation, and an additional €14 billion/a should be provided in an innovation fund to scale up serial renovation of buildings on an industrial scale. The total investment opportunity for deep renovation of Europe’s buildings is estimated at €243 billion per year.
A clear picture of the financial requirements for Europe’s building sector is of high political relevance: The European Commission is currently putting together a plan to help the EU economy recover from the COVID-19 crisis, preparing to put at least €1 trillion into a broad stimulus programme expected to be presented next week. In addition, the “Renovation Wave” strategy for buildings, proposed by EU Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, has been deemed a priority for economic recovery and will be released this September.
Oliver Rapf, Executive Director at BPIE says, “The scale of the investment opportunity is enormous, and while large figures for the economic recovery are currently featuring high in the political debate, we are presenting an updated analysis what investment is needed to deeply renovate Europe’s buildings.”
Rapf continues, “As Europe is discussing the scale of an unparalleled recovery programme to mitigate the damage of the Covid-19 pandemic, it has become clear that renovation of the European building stock would create a triple benefit. It would lead to an increase in economic activity, retaining and creating employment; it would support the achievement of Europe’s climate and energy targets, and it would provide Europeans with better and healthier buildings.”
BPIE has contributed early on to the debate surrounding the EU Green Deal, having published an Action Plan for the Renovation Wave last April. While the buildings sector offers enormous potential in terms of CO2 savings, it also represents a significant investment opportunity in the EU 27, estimated at €243 billion per year until 2050. Of this amount, €179 billion/a is required for residential buildings, and €64 billion/a for non-residential buildings renovation.