About
Under the European Green Deal and the European Climate Law, the EU aims to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030.
Buildings are central to this transition, accounting for around 35% of EU energy consumption, 40% of energy-related emissions and 37% of total waste. Efforts to decarbonise and to make the building sector more sustainable are supported by key EU legislation, including the revised Energy Efficiency Directive, the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD), the Renewable Energy Directive and the extension of the Emissions Trading System, which together drive energy efficiency, renewable uptake, circularity and resource use across the building lifecycle.
Other policy areas impacting buildings are: REPowerEU, with a phase-out of fossil fuel imports; measures supporting European industry in the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Industrial Accelerator Act.
The annual EU renovation rate still remains close to 1% – well below the 2.5–3% needed for climate neutrality. The deployment of heat pumps and other key clean technologies still lags behind the pace required to meet 2030 objectives.
In this context, the IWG on Energy and Resource Efficiency in Buildings supports the SET Plan by unlocking the energy-saving potential of existing and new buildings, through two subgroups: 5.1 Sustainable materials and technologies for energy-efficient building solutions, and 5.2 Cross-cutting heating and cooling technologies for buildings. The aim of IWG on Energy and Resource Efficiency in Buildings is supporting the implementation of EU climate, energy, resilience and industrial objectives by speeding up the deployment of innovative technologies and approaches in the built environment, in a context of Just Transition.
The IWG first adopted its Implementation Plan in 2018, substantially revised in 2024–2025 to strengthen renovation, efficiency, renewable energy, circularity, and flexibility. In 2026, this culminated in a Thematic Vision setting short- (2030), medium- (2040) and long-term (2050) objectives, aligned with the EU objectives that were mentioned.
The Thematic Vision is built around four strategic themes:
- supporting European competitiveness
- enabling circular, resource-efficient and sustainable construction
- delivering affordable, inclusive and people-centred renovation
- delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings – with resilience and cross-cutting priorities (digitalisation, circularity, industrialisation, standardisation, and skills) embedded throughout.
By 2030 the focus is cost-efficient zero-emission buildings and reaching vulnerable households before ETS2 pricing; by 2040, industrialised renovation at scale and mainstreamed resilient cooling; and by 2050, full – potentially carbon-negative – climate neutrality, with buildings as active nodes in the energy system.
Targets and objectives
By 2030, the following innovation targets are set under Action 5.1 (Sustainable Materials and Technologies) and Action 5.2 (Cross-Cutting Heating and Cooling Technologies), presented here in line with the structure of the Thematic Vision.
| Subgroup | Target | Title | Description | Priorities |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5.1 | 5.1-T1 | Energy use reduction | Reduce the energy use of buildings by 16% compared to 2020, prioritising passive renovation measures while promoting targeted financial support for the most vulnerable households. | Delivering affordable, inclusive and people-centred renovation |
| 5.1 | 5.1-T2 | Zero-emission buildings | Develop and demonstrate cost-efficient solutions for a wide range of zero-emission building types by 2030, promoted and incentivised to build social trust, acceptance, and uptake for a fair and inclusive energy transition. | Delivering affordable, inclusive and people-centred renovation |
| 5.1 | 5.1-T3 | Construction speed | Develop and demonstrate market-ready solutions reducing the average duration of energy-related construction works by more than 40% for both renovation and new buildings, compared to current national standard practices. | Supporting European competitiveness |
| 5.1 | 5.1-T4 | Energy performance gap | Develop solutions reducing the gap between predicted and measured energy performance to a maximum of 15% after commissioning, with an ambition to reach 10%. | Supporting European competitiveness |
| 5.1 | 5.1-T5 | Building flexibility | Develop interoperable, data-driven applications enabling at least 20% flexibility capacity in a minimum of 20% of all buildings at district level, without unacceptable impairments for users. | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
| 5.1 | 5.1-T6 | Materials circularity | Develop data-driven solutions maximising the reusability and high-value recyclability of building materials and elements at end-of-life, achieving 50% upcycling by 2030. | Enabling circular, resource-efficient and sustainable construction |
| 5.2 | 5.2-T1 | Heat pump systems | Develop plug-and-play hybrid/multi-source heat pump systems and integrated modular heat pump plants; demonstrate heat-upgrade technologies for district heating networks at 90–160°C supply temperatures; increase the number of heat pumps across Europe by an additional 10 million by 2030. | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
| 5.2 | 5.2-T2 | District heating and cooling | Increase district heating’s share of EU heat demand to 20% by 2030, preferably from low-temperature waste heat and renewable sources; integrate 8 million households into district heating/cooling networks across Europe; accelerate the deployment of district cooling where appropriate. | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
| 5.2 | 5.2-T3 | Combined (cooling) heat and power | Integrate highly flexible C(C)HP systems with heat storage, heat pumps and renewable heat sources to reduce annual fuel consumption; develop C(C)HP technologies running on renewable gases (hydrogen, ammonia, methanol, synthetic gas) with performance comparable to natural gas; develop post-combustion solutions reducing emissions by more than 50% while maintaining operational flexibility. | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
| 5.2 | 5.2-T4 | Thermal energy storage | Commission 100 new large-scale thermal energy storage systems in district heating and cooling networks by 2030; demonstrate 10 sensible thermal-storage systems using renewable/waste heat for more than 60% of annual heat demand; demonstrate 20 compact thermal-storage systems at TRL 6/7 with a storage density of 120 kWh/m³. | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
| 5.2 | 5.2-T5 | Solar thermal systems and PVT | Reduce the cost of solar thermal combi-systems with a minimum 60% solar fraction to 12–16 €t/kWh; develop standardised solutions for easier integration of solar thermal in building renovation, particularly in active prefabricated elements; reduce PVT panel costs by a factor of 1.5–2 from the 2020 reference of €1,000/m². | Delivering climate-neutral, resilient and energy-integrated buildings |
The working group's research and innovation (R&I) activities support these major drivers in transforming the building sector.
IWG members
The group is co-chaired by country representatives from Spain and Greece. The working group is supported by the European Technology and Innovation Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling (RHC-ETIP) and the ECTP – European Construction and sustainable built environment Technology Platform (ECTP).
As of 5 June 2026, IWG5 had 22 [MS1] participating countries and 39 nominated experts across active members and temporary observers:
| Country | Membership |
| Austria | Active member |
| Belgium | Active member |
| Bulgaria | Active member |
| Cyprus | Active member |
| Denmark | Active member |
| France | Temporary observer |
| Germany | Active member |
| Greece | Co-chair |
| Hungary | Active member |
| Ireland | Temporary observer |
| Italy | Active member |
| Latvia | Temporary observer |
| Malta | Temporary observer |
| Netherlands | Temporary observer |
| Norway | Active member |
| Poland | Temporary observer |
| Portugal | Temporary observer |
| Romania | Active member |
| Slovakia | Temporary observer |
| Slovenia | Active member |
| Spain | Co-chair |
| Sweden | Active member |
[MS1]For Marco: I had to change this from 23 to 22 to reflect the updated list.
Documents
Relevant links
- IWG energy efficiency in buildings website
- ETIP RHC
- European Construction and sustainable built environment Technology Platform (ECTP)
- IWG energy efficiency in buildings CSA
- European Partnerships: Driving Urban Transitions to a Sustainable Future (DUT), Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETP) and People-centric sustainable built environment (Built4People)
