Policy Updates

<p>The European Commission is expected to announce its Circular Economy Action Plan on 10 March 2020. It will include a series of initiatives that should result in a strategy for the built environment.</p>

<p>To meet the EU’s energy and climate targets for 2030, EU Member States need to establish a 10-year NECP for the period of 2021 to 2030 by the end of 2018. The Commission assessed the various plans and provided recommendations to the Member States. The final NECPs, except for those from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Romania, Spain and United Kingdom have been published on the Commission website at the end of February 2020.</p>

<p>At the end of 2019, The Economist Intelligence Unit published ‘The Cooling Imperative: Forecasting the size and source of future cooling demand’ and more recently the American Clean Energy Manufacturing Analysis Centre published ‘Refrigerants: Market Trends and Supply Chain Assessment’. Both studies make most interesting reading for manufacturers that make use of refrigerants in their products.</p>

<p>The association APPLiA raised a concern about the consequences of the legal inconsistencies in the verification procedure found in the Energy Labelling Product Regulations published in December 2019. The European Commission has picked up the issue and hosted a stakeholder meeting on 12 February to look at it. The Commission will first look at the Regulations published in 2019 before addressing Regulations published previously.</p>

<p>The latest Eurostat figures show that the share of renewables in the total energy used for heating and cooling in the EU slightly increased from 20,98% in 2017 to 21,14% in 2018. This continues the long-standing trend since the beginning of the data collection in 2004 when the share was 12%. Renewable energy includes derived heat and heat energy captured by heat pumps, which contributed 27% of all renewables used for heating and cooling in 2018, up from 26% in 2017.</p>

<p>New Eurostat figures show that final energy consumption in the EU reached 990 Mtoe in 2018, an increase of 0,02% compared to 2017. The greatest increases were observed in the energy consumption of buildings. The EU risks missing its binding energy efficiency objective to reduce energy consumption by 20% by 2020. Current energy savings plans from Member States risk falling short of the 2030 target as well by 6,2 percentage points.</p>

<p>On a monthly basis, the Eurovent Team compiles a global overview of the latest developments concerning new standardisation activities and technical regulations of relevance for the HVACR industry. Our Notifications allow members to be prepared for developments that can have an impact on them and their products.</p>

<p>Your feedback matters to us. The Eurovent Team is constantly working on applying your requests and feedback to our actions and communication. Following the recent requests, we have a launched a series of black and white Eurovent Association member logos, which can be applied by members without disturbing their corporate identity. The logos can be used by national Member Associations, Corresponding Members, Associate Members, and Affiliated Manufacturers.</p>

<p>The European Court of Auditors’ recent Special Report ‘EU action on Ecodesign and Energy Labelling’ shows that the EU’s Ecodesign and Energy Labelling measures have contributed to greater energy efficiency. Delays in the legislative process, overestimations of the effects of the policies, and non-compliance by manufacturers and retailers remain problematic.</p>

<p>On behalf of the European Commission (DG CLIMA), Öko-Recherche is working on a series of analysis evaluating the implementation of the F-Gas Regulation (EU) No 517/2014 since 2015. This includes, among others, monitoring of the refrigerant prices. The Q3/2019 report has been recently shared with Eurovent.</p>

<p>On a monthly basis, the Eurovent Team compiles a global overview of the latest developments concerning new standardisation activities and technical regulations of relevance for the HVACR industry. Our Notifications allow members to be prepared for developments that can have an impact on them and their products.</p>

<p>In cooperation with Orgalim, the Eurovent Team regularly provides you with an in-depth overview on all European legislative developments of relevance for the HVACR sector. The Bulletin provides for a hands-on compendium allowing the industry to assess the status quo and expected future developments. In addition to recent sector specific issues, our Team has summarised some of the key takeaways within this article.</p>