New RED II Renewable Energy Directive and Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

The RED II Renewable Energy Directive was approved on 14 June 2018 (Press note).

Member states will have to include the new elements of the Directive into national law by 30 June 2021.

The main aspects of the new Directive are:

Overall renewables target 32% + upward review clause in 2023
Improvement the design and stability of support schemes for renewables.
Delivers real streamlining and reduction of administrative procedures.
Establishes a clear and stable regulatory framework on self-consumption.

For the bioenergy sector:

Increases the level of ambition for the heating/cooling sector.

Increases the level of ambition for the transport sector and biofuels.

– Sectorial transport target of renewables of 14% by 2030.

– Sub-target for advanced biofuels (Annex IX part A): 3.5% by 2030.

– Multipliers: 1.2 for shipping and aviation; double counting of annex IX (A+B), EVs flexible (3.5), rail multiplier of 1.5 voluntary.

– No longer an EU driver behind the use of first generation biofuels. A Member State’s sectorial transport target can be lowered, if the Member State decides to use less food/feed crop based biofuels and/or if its share of first generation is limited below 7%.

– Food and feed crop biofuels are capped at each Member State’s 2020 level plus 1% flexibility, the total share of first generation biofuels consumed in a Member State can never be higher than 7% of the gross final energy consumption its road and rail transport. Member states below 2% are allowed to go up to 2% if they wish to do so.

–Beginning of 2019 the Commission will have to come forward with a study and a delegated act to set out criteria and list the feedstocks. In 2023 there will be a review of these criteria before the phase out start. The delegated act will also work out the concept of low-ILUC risk fuels, those can be excluded from the phase-out, but not from the overall 7% cap for food and feed crops.

-The greenhouse gas emission savings from the use of renewable liquid and gaseous transport fuels of non-biological origin excluding recycled carbon fuels shall be at least 70% as of 1 January 2021.

-Appropriate minimum thresholds for greenhouse gas emission savings of recycled carbon fuels shall be established through life cycle assessment that takes into account the specificities of each fuel. The threshold shall be set by the Commission at the latest by 1 January 2021 by the means of a delegated act.

The revised Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2018/844 has been published in the EU Official Journal (L156) and will enter into force as of 9 July 2018. EU countries will have to transpose the new elements of the Directive into national law within 20 months. The main aspects are:

The new regulatory framework includes an energy efficiency target for the EU for 2030 of 32.5% with an upwards revision clause by 2023.
The Primary Energy Factor has been adopted with a default coefficient of 1, with a revision every 4 years to consider the effects on other EU legislation, such as Eco-design and Energy Labelling.
Concerning the annual energy savingsfrom the final energy consumption up to 2030, the agreed mandatory rate is 8% : exemptions to this saving rate include for instance renewable produced in buildings.
Member States shall also express those targets in terms of an absolute level of primary energy consumption and final energy consumption in 2020 and shall explain how, and on the basis of which data, this has been calculated.
Each Member State shall establish a long-term renovation strategy to support the renovation of the national stock of residential and non-residential buildings, both public and private, into a highly energy efficient and decarbonised building stock by 2050.