To Glass for Europe, an energy efficiency target of 27% is meaningless in light of the 50 to 60% cost effective energy efficiency potential in the building sector alone.This illustrates the need to embrace a sectorial approach to reap energy efficiency gains and all its benefits: massive reduction in GHG emissions, support to economic recovery and jobs, and reduction of Europe’s energy dependency.
Glass for Europe is pleased that the European Council asks the European Commission ‘to propose priority sectors in which significant energy efficiency gains can be reaped, and ways to address them at EU level, with the EU and the Member States focusing their regulatory and financial efforts on these sectors’.
Bertrand Cazes, Secretary General of Glass for Europe declared ‘It is evident that the building sector and its renovation must be one of those priorities sectors. Our industry will contribute to the elaboration of concrete solutions such as the development of an EU energy labelling scheme for windows and to the urgently needed revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings directive’.
Glass for Europe also takes note of the Council’s desire to secure measures against risks of carbon leakage for industries covered by the EU ETS. Some of the principles laid out by the Council go in the right direction: better alignment of allowances to production levels, regular review of benchmarks and that ‘most efficient installations do not face undue carbon costs (...)’. Glass for Europe eagerly awaits the European Commission’s proposals on this item.
About Glass for Europe
Glass for Europe is the trade association for Europe’s manufacturers of flat glass. Flat glass is the material that goes into a variety of end-products and primarily in windows and façades for buildings, windscreens and windows for automotive and transport as well as glass covers, connectors and mirrors for solar-energy equipments. Flat glass is also used for many other applications such as furniture, electronics, appliances, etc.