Dithering on the Edge of Europe
Dithering on the Edge of Europe

S2: European Union - Green Deal Part 4/4

November 23, 2020

AI Summary

5 min read

The European Green Deal’s sections on building renovation and sustainable mobility are, in the hosts’ assessment, thin and underwhelming. Buildings account for 40% of the EU’s energy consumption, and road transport alone produces 72% of transport-related greenhouse gas emissions. Yet the policy documents for both areas amount to little more than two-page infographics, heavy on digitalization and light on binding targets. The hosts, Karola and Rich, walk through what is there, what is missing, and why these two sectors—long left to national governments—now demand far more aggressive collective action.

The Renovation Trickle

The Green Deal calls for a “renovation wave” to improve the energy efficiency of Europe’s building stock. The problem, as Rich points out, is that the current annual renovation rate across EU member states sits between 0.4% and 1.2%. Doubling that rate—the stated ambition—would still mean renovating only 8 to 24 buildings out of every 100 by 2030. “It’s not a renovation wave,” Rich says, “it’s a renovation dribble.”

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What you'll learn

  • 1 (00:04) **Introduction and Episode Recap** - Hosts Karola and Rich open the show and recap the Green Deal series so far.
  • 2 (03:15) **Building & Renovation: The Scale of the Problem** - 40% of EU energy consumption goes into buildings, but renovation rates are critically low.
  • 3 (06:30) **The Need for Whole-House Renovation** - Insulation must be done comprehensively, not piecemeal.
  • 4 (11:11) **EU Instruments for Building Renovation** - The EU's proposed tools are limited and late.
  • 5 (19:43) **Sustainable Mobility: Overview and Scale** - Transport accounts for 25% of EU greenhouse gas emissions.
  • 6 (21:39) **Digital Solutions and Smart Mobility** - The policy emphasizes digitalization and smart systems.
  • 7 (24:49) **Freight, Aviation, and the Single European Sky** - Proposals to shift freight to rail/water and reform air traffic management.

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Show Notes

Rich and Carola have accepted the fact that the EU will probably implement their whole Green Deal before the Dithering Team finishes reviewing it. But undaunted by the extensiveness of the deal, they soldier through two policy areas which should be so much more at the heart of any green economy than the Green Deal makes them out to be: Building & Renovation, and Sustainable Mobility.

However, Carola and Rich are not impressed by these two expressions of policy-oriented interventions. If the EU Green Deal is supposed to shift behaviour of member states to chose more green solutions for mobility (and area that represents 70% of green house gases), or initiate that lauded “renovation wave”, as discussed in the EU policies, these policy areas and their targets are so humble that Carola wonders if the EU really means business or if it’s caught in that ever enduring tension between sovereignty and unity. It poses the question of whether ‘politically doable’ is just not enough to save the planet. As Rich says, “We just got to get real!”

The EU Green Deal covers 9 policy areas, and in the last 3 episodes, Carola and Rich covered the areas of 
  • Clean Energy 
  • Farm to Fork
  • Biodiversity
  • Sustainable Agriculture
  • Sustainable Industry
  • Eliminating pollution
 
And in this episode they cover
  • Building and Renovation
  • Sustainable mobility
 
Upcoming in the next episode is a big one:
  • Climate action
 

Key Resources 


 
Infographics: