Historic buildings face huge climate change challenge — Timmermans
EUROPEAN climate commissioner and EU executive vice-president Frans Timmermans has said that one of the greatest challenges the continent faces is converting the historic buildings in Europe’s centuries-old cities for a sustainable future.
That means that many buildings in Ireland and across the EU need to be retrofitted to prevent heat loss and also updated to incorporate green technologies.
Timmermans, the keynote speaker at Callaway Climate Insights’ first Dublin Climate Summit, highlighted the importance of energy efficiency in a wide Q&A session
He said European leaders understand they need to mobilise funds “to the tune of €1.8 trillion,” some of which can go to doubling the yearly reduction of energy consumption of buildings in the EU, shifting the pace from 1pc reduction per annum to at least 2pc That will not only have major climate impacts, but boost small and medium enterprises that are struggling to survive the harsh economic conditions caused by the Covid pandemic.
“It will get … small and medium-sized enterprises going immediately out of the crisis in the building sector,” he added, and “it will provide for better housing and less energy consumption, so lower energy costs and better value.
“It can also be applied to official buildings, to schools or hospitals,” he said, adding that energy policies can also help address issues such as a housing shortage in the Irish capital, Dublin.
“The housing challenge is huge in that city, and this renovation wave could contribute to that. We could do it at the same time in an environmentally conscious way, in a climate-neutral way.”
He also said, homeowners need to be encouraged to make sustainable decisions about their homes.