About us

The Fit for 55 legislative package was published by the EU Commission in 2021 and the number ‘55’ refers to the EU’s increased 55% net emissions reduction target for 2030. The package has ambitious renovation strategies and a 2050 vision towards a decarbonized building stock to achieve a 100% emission-free heating and cooling sector by 2050.

• Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD): aims to reduce the energy consumption of buildings, which in 2021 accounted for 42% of EU energy use. The directive aims to set the building sector to its complete decarbonisation by 2050 via minimum energy performance standards for building renovation and zero-emission building requirement for new buildings.
• Renewable Energy Directive (RED): RED III sets the binding Renewable Energy Sources share target to 42.5% by 2030, with the introduction of a non-binding suggestion for Member States to reach 45%. To advance the use of renewable energy in the heating and cooling sector, each Member State is required to annually increase the share of renewable energy by at least 0.8 percentage points from 2021 to 2025 and 1.1 percentage points from 2026 to 2030, starting from the 2020 baseline.

• Key changes concerning biomass introduced by RED III

Under the latest Renewable Energy Directive (RED III), biofuels, bioliquids, and biomass fuels must adhere to stricter sustainability and greenhouse gas (GHG) saving criteria to contribute toward the EU’s enhanced renewable energy targets, meet compliance obligations, and qualify for financial support. While RED II introduced sustainability standards for biomass, RED III has further extended these requirements. Specifically, materials sourced from high-biodiversity areas, such as primary and old-growth forests, are now subject to additional restrictions.

For forest biomass, RED III imposes stricter controls to minimize environmental risks. Harvesting must now prioritize sustainable forest management, avoid degradation of critical forest ecosystems, and prevent harmful practices such as clear-cutting and stump/root removal. Moreover, operators must provide assurance that biomass does not originate from restricted lands.

However, certain biomass types derived from waste and residues only need to meet the GHG saving criteria, exempt from broader sustainability rules. The implementation of RED III will vary across EU Member States, requiring businesses to consider local laws for compliance (Forest Defenders)  (Energy).

• Energy Efficiency Directive (EED): revised in 2023, the directive increases the EU energy efficiency target, requiring EU countries to collectively ensure an additional 11.7% reduction in energy consumption by 2030. It also sets the district heating and cooling sector to a decarbonisation pathway, gradually increasing the minimum share of renewables and waste heat in the networks, reaching 100% renewables and waste heat by 2050. The directive also introduces mandatory development of local heating and cooling plans for municipalities above 45.000 citizens, which will support cities to develop the most energy-efficient heating and cooling solutions based on the local circumstances.

In the framework of the Green Deal Industrial Act, the EU Commission proposed the Net-Zero Industry Act to boost and expand Europe’s manufacturing capabilities for net-zero technologies. It also aims to scale up the manufacturing of technologies which are key to achieving climate neutrality.

This Act will attract investments and create better conditions and market access for clean solutions in the EU. The aim is that the Union’s overall strategic net-zero technologies manufacturing capacity approaches or reaches at least 40% of annual deployment needs by 2030. This will accelerate the progress towards the EU’s 2030 climate and energy targets and the transition to climate neutrality by 2050. It will also boost the competitiveness of EU industry, create quality jobs, and support the EU’s efforts to become energy independent.

• Strategy on Energy System Integration: Sector integration means linking the various energy carriers – electricity, heat, cold, gas, solid and liquid fuels – with each other and with the end-use sectors, such as buildings, transport or industry. The Strategy foresees 40% of all residential and 65% of all commercial buildings to be heated by electricity in 2030. This should be done mainly through heat pumps. The EU Commission foresees an evaluation of the implementation of the strategy in 2024. Read more
• Climate Law: The EU has a target for net zero emissions by 2050, which is enshrined under its 2018 Climate Law. EU Member States have developed both national climate and energy plans and long-term strategies to achieve the greenhouse gas emissions reductions needed to meet their commitments under the Paris Agreement and EU objectives.  Read more
• National energy and climate plan (NECP): To meet the EU’s energy and climate targets for 2030, EU Member States were required to establish a national energy and climate plan (NECP) from 2021 to 2030.  Each country must submit a progress report every two years, with the EU Commission keeping track of EU progress overall. The NECPs were submitted in 2021 and Member States submitted draft updates in 2023. The European Commission has provided feedback to Member States, which must submit a final version of their NECPs by June 30, 2024. Read more

The aim of the Ecodesign Directive and the Energy Labelling Regulation is to increase the energy efficiency of products, reducing their overall environmental impacts, promoting the free-movement of energy-related products within EU, and providing consumers with information allowing them to select the more energy efficient products.

• Ecodesign Regulation: Ecodesign is of the highest importance to the heat pump and electric heaters and coolers industry as it sets requirements to be met directly by manufacturers. It ensures that inefficient and outdated technologies will be kept out of the European market, thus fostering continuous innovation. The European Commission is now operating under the Ecodesign Working Plan for the 2022-2024 period, adopted in March 2022 to ensure that this successful policy will continue to contribute to the EU’s energy efficiency targets. District heating and cooling is regulated under the Medium Combustion Plant Directive, the Industrial Emissions Directive, and the Energy Efficiency Directive its rapid and successful development relies on a level playing field with individual solutions under ecodesign regulations.
• Energy Labelling Regulation: EU tool to help consumers choose energy-efficient products. It complements the EU Ecodesign requirements with mandatory labelling requirements. The European Commission is regularly rescaling the labels of energy consuming products, as they have become more efficient over time. Energy labelling aims to help consumers make informed choices and push consumers toward better products.

F-gas Regulation: Fluorinated gases (F-gases) are greenhouse gases with a strong global warming effect. To reduce emissions, the EU adopted the ‘F-gas Regulation’. The Regulation limits the total amount of the most important F-gases that can be sold in the EU from 2015 and organizes a phase-down to reach one-fifth of 2014 levels in 2030. The Regulation also bans the use of F-gases in equipment where less harmful alternatives are widely available and requires servicing and recovery of the gases at the end of the equipment’s life. The F-Gas regulation expects the industry to develop and deploy alternative refrigerants with a lower Global Warming Potential (GWP) for both individual and large-scale heat pumps, in line with the EU climate targets.

In response to the hardships and global energy market disruption caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the European Commission has implemented the REPowerEU Plan to phase out Russian fossil fuel imports. Launched in May 2022, REPowerEU is designed to help the EU:

• Save energy
• Diversify energy supplies
• Produce clean energy

Thanks to the REPowerEU Plan, the EU has safeguarded its citizens and businesses from energy shortages, supported Ukraine by weakening Russia’s war chest, accelerated the transition to clean energy, and stabilized prices.

Putin’s attempt to divide Europe by weaponizing energy supplies has failed. The joint efforts of the EU continue, and Europe is now better prepared and more united than ever.

Key Achievements:

• Between August 2022 and December 2023, the EU reduced gas consumption by 18%
• Overcome our dependency on Russian fossil fuels
• Ensured access to secure and affordable energy
• Produced more electricity from wind and solar than from gas for the first time ever
• Rapidly increased renewable energy installation

Heat Pump Action Plan is an initiative of the EU Commission to help reach the EU Green Deal and REPowerEU targets. A call for evidence on the action plan was launched on 28 April 2023. The input provided will be taken into account as the Commission further develop and fine-tune the initiative. In addition, a public consultation was open between 7 June and 30 August 2023 to allow for additional feedback and ideas. To input the plan, EHPA and other 22 organizations worked together to build an ‘accelerator’ document which identifies the barriers and solutions to faster heat pump roll-out. The EU Heat Pump Accelerator was handed over to EU Energy Commissioner Simson in June 2023. However, in December 2023, the European Commission announced that the publication of the EU Heat Pump Action Plan, initially planned in early 2024, would be postponed until after the EU elections in June 2024.  Twenty organisations, including industry associations, NGOs, consumer groups, think tanks and 60+ CEOs joined EHPA’s call for the swift publication of the EU Heat Pump Action Plan without further delay. In May 2024, 15 Member States issued a joint non-paper asking for the plan’s release.

On 18 January 2024, the Parliament adopted its own initiative report on geothermal energy, which stresses that the greatest potential of geothermal energy use in the EU lies in district heating and cooling systems. It also stresses that geothermal energy can help to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector. The report underlines the need to modernise existing and build new heating and cooling networks using the potential of geothermal energy.

The report also calls on MSs to facilitate access to subsurface data, to explore possible financial incentives to ensure that the high upfront costs of drilling and exploration are covered and stresses that faster-permitting rules for geothermal, in compliance with existing EU environmental legislation, would facilitate the deployment of geothermal energy projects across the EU. All of these would boost geothermal energy use across the EU, contributing to the decarbonisation of the heating and cooling sector.