EPEE has welcomed the recently announced EU Recovery Plan, seeing it as an opportunity to prioritise clean air and promote investment in sustainable heating and cooling solutions.
The European Union’s proposed €750 billion fund to help the bloc recover from the coronavirus crisis will have green strings attached, with 25% of all funding set aside for climate action, the European Commission has said. Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement on Wednesday 27 May in a speech before the European Parliament.
“The recovery plan turns the immense challenge we face into an opportunity, not only by supporting the recovery but also by investing in our future: the European Green Deal and digitalisation,” von der Leyen said in a statement.
Earlier plans to reserve 25% of EU spending for climate-friendly expenditure “will apply throughout” the EU’s updated budget proposal and recovery programme from the COVID-19 crisis, EU officials explained.
Spending will also be guided by a sustainable finance taxonomy, which aims to channel private investments into technologies that contribute to at least one of six pre-defined environmental objectives, such as climate change mitigation.
And a “do no harm” test embedded in the taxonomy will in principle exclude fossil fuels and nuclear power, which are seen to be undermining other environmental objectives such as pollution prevention and control.
EPEE – the European Partnership for Energy and Environment – says the EU Recovery Plan flags an urgent need to boost residential and public building renovations to kick-start the EU economy and reduce emissions, therefore, setting the right direction to prioritise clean air.
Andrea Voigt, EPEE’s Director General said: “Heat pumps, district heating and cooling, waste heat recovery – these are all solutions to use energy more efficiently, taking an integrated approach to heating and cooling and supporting the phase out of fossil fuels. They also come with an important additional, and often underestimated positive side-effect: the significant improvement of the air that we breathe. This is true for our outdoor environment but even more so indoors where Europeans spend on average 90% of their time, working, learning, shopping, and socialising.
“Investing into sustainable heating and cooling is a true win-win solution in the broader context of Europe’s green recovery. It will ensure improved health, productivity and well-being of citizens while boosting the economy and delivering on energy and climate goals.”
Sources:
https://www.coolingpost.com/world-news/sustainable-cooling-is-a-path-to-recovery/
