(fra kommisjonsrekommandasjonen)

(1) In its communication of 17 September 2020 on ‘Stepping up Europe’s 2030 climate ambition – Investing in a climate-neutral future for the benefit of our people’ (the ‘Climate Target Plan’) (1), the Commission proposed to raise the Union’s climate ambition by increasing the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions target to at least 55 % below 1990 levels by 2030. The proposal delivered on the commitment made in the Commission communication of 11 December 2019 on ‘The European Green Deal’ (2) to put forward a comprehensive plan to move the Union’s target for 2030 towards 55 % in a responsible way. The impact assessment accompanying the Climate Target Plan demonstrated that, to achieve the increased climate ambition, energy efficiency improvements had to be significantly raised from the level of 32,5 %.

(2) Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council (3) on energy efficiency (the ‘Energy Efficiency Directive recast’ (EED recast)) entered into force on 10 October 2023, introducing an EU binding target of 11,7 % reduction in primary and final energy consumption by 2030, thereby significantly raising the level of ambition for 2030, including in relation to financing for energy efficiency, and stepping up the application of the energy efficiency first principle in policy, planning and investment decisions, in line with the legal provisions, therein.

(3) The action plan for affordable energy (4), adopted on 26 February 2025 as part of the Clean Industrial Deal (5), includes key actions to reduce energy costs for households and enterprises, and help build a genuine Energy Union that delivers on competitiveness, security, decarbonisation and just transition. The action plan is based on four pillars and eight key actions, including a dedicated Action to increase energy efficiency and deliver energy savings, emphasising the role of energy efficiency as a key contributor to affordable energy, decarbonisation, and industrial competitiveness. To advance energy efficiency, the European Commission will support market actors and financial institutions in fostering a single market for energy efficiency.

(4) The Commission Communication of 14 October 2020, entitled ‘A Renovation Wave for Europe’ (6) identifies the building sector as key for delivering on the 2030 energy efficiency targets and for reaching climate neutrality by 2050. This is due to the relevance of buildings, which represent approximately 40 % of the Union’s total energy consumption and 36 % of its greenhouse gas emissions.

(5) Directive (EU) 2024/1275 of the European Parliament and of the Council (7) on energy performance of buildings (the ‘Energy Performance of Building Directive recast’ (EPBD recast)) entered into force on 28 May 2024 and aims to structurally boost the energy performance of buildings with a focus on supporting the renovation of the worst-performing buildings, fighting energy poverty by prioritising vulnerable households, and the achievement of a fully decarbonised building stock by 2050.

(6) The REPowerEU Plan Communication of May 2022 (8), followed by the Roadmap towards ending Russian energy imports (9) and the proposal for a Regulation on phasing out Russian gas imports and improving monitoring of potential energy dependencies (10), identifies energy efficiency and efforts to save energy as key pillars of EU’s energy security objectives to significantly reduce dependency from Russian fossil fuels and accelerate the energy transition.

(7) The ‘World Energy Investment 2025’ Report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) (11) underlines that the objective of doubling the pace of energy efficiency improvements requires greater additional investment. While investments in energy efficiency have been constantly increasing between 2015 and 2022, the IEA has found that as of 2023 policy and financing support has rolled back, and the trend has been confirmed in 2024. In particular, in the European Union investment in energy efficiency and electrification decreased by 2 %, mainly because of reduced policy support in some market and slowdown in heat pumps sales. Overall, the IEA has stated that the current annual rate of investments in energy efficiency and electrification has to be tripled to double the rate of energy efficiency improvements.

(8) The report from Mario Draghi ‘A Competitiveness Strategy for Europe’ recalled the massive Union financing needs to meet its policy objectives, amounting to a minimum annual additional investment of EUR 750 to 800 billion annually, and the need for EU public finance to be deployed effectively to stimulate private investments. To support the mobilisation of private investments, the Draghi report identified the need to complete the Capital Markets Union, to increase the financing capacity of the banking sector, which would include reviving securitisation and assessing current prudential regulation, and to reform the EU budget in order to increase its focus and efficiency, as well as improve the leverage of private investments.

(9) Mobilising investments in energy efficiency and leveraging additional private financing via dedicated policy and financing measures is indeed key to helping Member States to deliver on the 2030 energy efficiency targets, to achieving climate neutrality by 2050 in a cost-effective way, to facilitating the transition to an integrated energy system providing affordable and clean energy to all, and to lowering the pressure on demand for energy, and, therefore energy prices, while enhancing competitiveness and sustainability of the EU economy, and contributing to reducing EU dependency on energy imports.

(10) Article 30 of the EED recast ((EU) 2023/1791) recognises the need to deploy adequate financial and technical support for energy efficiency measures and to develop targeted policy measures enabling the mobilisation of private investments in energy efficiency.

(11) Financial institutions and energy efficiency market actors, such as energy service companies, energy communities, energy utilities and distribution system operators, district heating and cooling networks, real estate companies, energy efficiency and net-zero technologies providers should play a key role in mobilising private investments in energy efficiency by leveraging the economic benefits of energy efficiency improvements in terms of energy cost savings, and thus add scale to the business case for energy efficiency.

(12) To leverage the participation of financial institutions and further mobilise private investments for energy efficiency, in 2024 the Commission created the European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition (the ‘Coalition’), which brought together the EU Member States, financial institutions and relevant stakeholders as founding members to identify concrete actions to improve private financing for energy efficiency. The objectives of the Coalition are to create a favourable market environment for energy efficiency investments and to scale up the private financing needed to support the achievement of the EU’s energy and climate targets for 2030 and 2050.

(13) The joint report on ‘Energy Efficiency Financing in Europe – An assessment of public spending for energy efficiency and the energy performance of buildings’ (12), in line with the provisions of Article 30(17) EED recasts ((EU) 2023/1791) and Article 9(8) EPBD recast ((EU) 2024/1275), assesses the current state and the effectiveness of public funding support in Europe for leveraging additional private investments. The joint report notes that the investment needed to achieve the 2030 energy efficiency targets is EUR 370 billion per year for the 2021-2030 period and that the projected investment gap to achieve the energy efficiency targets amounts to around EUR 170 billion per year (13). The EU budgetary resources for energy efficiency have increased by 62 % in the 2021-2027 Multi-Annual Financial Framework compared to the 2014-2020 period, and by 491 % when taking into account contribution from NextGenerationEU, from EUR 26,5 to 156,6 billion. A large majority of this increase comes from the recovery and resilience facility (‘RRF’). The joint report concludes that EU and national public budget resources for energy efficiency are fundamental although they only account for a limited share representing around 14,4 % of the investment needs. The report also concludes that the catalytic effect of public funding should be fully and further exploited by increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of public budget support in delivering larger energy savings and attracting further private capital.

(14) Given the limited availability of public resources, their use should be targeted to increase the business case for energy efficiency and thus address market failures impeding mobilisation of private investment in energy efficiency, while also focusing on providing support to vulnerable groups to address high upfront costs. In addition, the limited standardisation of energy efficiency investments represents a critical barrier to the development of dedicated financial offers and financial instruments for energy efficiency at scale, thereby failing to attract private capital investors and market operators. Therefore, it remains key to support aggregation, project development assistance, and common methodologies to develop, aggregate and valuate energy efficiency investments in order to further crowd-in private capitals.

(15) Since the households affected by energy poverty lack own resources and have limited access to commercial loans, they face barriers to accessing finance for investments. Such households therefore need innovative public financial instruments blending different forms of funding that can enable access to finance in the form of zero-to-low interest loans, cost-free performance-based funding – such as energy performance contracting and on-bill financing – that allows households to access upfront finance support and pay back the investment as they save on their energy bill, alongside other innovative forms of financing. Energy communities can also play a role in pooling private investments in energy efficiency solutions in a way that is more accessible and affordable for citizens, local authorities, SMEs, and vulnerable households.

(16) Measures to lower energy bills and reduce energy poverty, as well as measures to support the renovation of worst performing buildings and to address the needs of vulnerable consumers, are expected to positively contribute to the Commission’s objective to increase the supply and access to affordable housing.

(17) Specifically regarding the building sector, the observed average renovation rate across EU Member States is currently too low (i.e. below 1 %) to ensure a timely decarbonisation of the building stock. Supporting increased renovation rates and the uptake of energy efficiency measures in enterprises, including via regulatory measures, will stimulate private investors and market operators’ participation in the development of a thriving market for energy efficiency investments.

(18) Scaling up private investments for energy efficiency requires recognising existing differences across Member States’ energy efficiency markets, financing practices, and their regulatory and support frameworks. Having identified that different challenges at national and regional level need different policy approaches, the Coalition established at Union level is complemented by dedicated Member States-based national hubs. The aim is for each hub to focus on a particular market-driven approach to deliver on energy efficiency. The national hubs of the Coalition should drive the uptake of financing solutions at national level by gathering the right stakeholders, including public authorities and financial institutions, and by providing continuous technical support to Member States’ authorities to help them develop energy efficiency financing solutions in line with their policy objectives and ambitions. Similarly, the present recommendation to unlock private investments in energy efficiency should be tailored to the specific national markets and financing practices.

(19) In spring 2024, the Commission convened a European Citizens’ Panel on Energy Efficiency bringing together 150 European citizens to discuss the challenges and benefits of energy efficiency most relevant to them. As a result of their deliberations the citizens put forward a list of concrete recommendations to feed into upcoming Commission initiatives, highlighting in their recommendations the key role of supporting financing for energy efficiency (14).

(20) Pursuant to Article 30(10) EED recast ((EU) 2023/1791), the Commission is required to provide guidance for Member States and market actors on how to unlock private investments in energy efficiency. The guidance should help Member States and market actors to develop and implement their energy efficiency investments, both within and outside of the various Union programmes, and should propose adequate financial mechanisms and innovative financing solutions, with a combination of grants, financial instruments and project development assistance, for scaling up existing initiatives and using Union programmes as a catalyst to leverage and trigger private financing.

(21) This Recommendation is accompanied by a detailed Annex with examples of specific actions, measures and guidelines for implementation via the set-up of financing schemes that can unlock private investments in energy efficiency,