During the meeting of the Ecodesign Regulatory Committee on 8 July, EU Member States endorsed the Commission’s proposal for a regulation reducing standby energy consumption of household and office products.

 The European Commission is carrying out a public consultation to help identify sustainability criteria for the use of biomass for energy purposes.

 Finnish Green MEP Satu Hassi is vice-chair of the Environment Committee and parliament’s rapporteur for the ‘Effort Sharing Decision’ to reduce Europe’s greenhouse gas emissions. Effort Sharing covers areas not included in the EU’s emission trading scheme – such as transport, buildings, services, agriculture and waste. Between 2013 and 2020 they will make up about half of all emissions.

The green buildings market has experienced exponential growth over the last ten years and experts are optimistic about the continued growth and evolution of this market with expected growth predictions for the next 10 years at 30%.

The Paris- based International Energy Agency – part of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) - has added its voice to the call for an expansion of combined heat and power (CHP), also dubbed district heating(DH).

It is well known that Germany has made impressive inroads into a decarbonised economy with renewables, but even at the local scale, it leads on retrofitting of buildings, boosted by powerful incentives. Dr Paul K Hatchwell looks at key examples of progress and what lessons there could be for the UK sustainable building industry and microgeneration.

Reduced oil and gas consumption in UK homes has contributed to lower greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the EU between 2005 and 2006 according to the official inventory report prepared by the European Environment Agency (EEA). Overall emissions fell by 14 million tonnes (0.3%) and now stand 7.7% below 1990 levels. Total emissions in the European Union were slightly more than 5.1 billion tonnes in 2006.

The European Parliament voted through an agreement reached with the Council of Ministers on the revision of the waste framework directive, the central pillar of EU waste management policy.

The European Commission announced on 13 May that it would promote the use of ICT (Information and Communications Technologies) to improve energy efficiency throughout the economy, starting with buildings, lighting and electricity networks. These technologies include those commonly associated in the UK with energy management. The Commission says that ICT can enable greener behaviour across the economy and this could massively cut Europe’s carbon footprint.

The EU’s climate change and renewable energy goals should be seen as a chance for EU industries to become world leaders in sustainable technologies, says a report adopted by the European Parliament on 22 May. However, it was important to avoid a relocation of European industries to countries with less strict environmental policies “The EU’s environmental goals should not be seen as a threat to industry”, says the report drafted by Slovenian MEP Romana Jordan Cizelj. The EU’s objectives should be regarded “as an opportunity to gain a first mover advantage and make industry in the EU a world leader in environmentally friendly and socially acceptable technologies, products and services,” stressed MEPs in the debate on the report.