The Road to Climate Neutrality: Are National Long-Term Renovation Strategies Fit For 2050?

EU Member States’ long-term renovation strategies (‘LTRS’) are largely not compliant with the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (‘EPBD’) objectives towards achieving a highly energy efficient and decarbonized building stock by 2050. Furthermore, LTRS are now misaligned with the EU’s strengthened 2030 Climate Target and 2050 climate-neutrality objective. Half of the analysed strategies include an objective at or above 90% GHG emissions reduction, which is in line with the legal requirement of the EPBD Article 2a that requires Member States to set a long-term 2050 goal of reducing GHG emissions in the EU by 80-95% compared to 1990. However, none of the eight strategies targets 100% decarbonisation of the building stock.