Towards an effective implementation of key legislation in the field of sustainable energy

Deadline: Sep 19, 2024  
- 133 days

Under the Fit for 55 Package to implement the European Green Deal and the REPowerEU Plan, the Commission proposed a whole set of new measures to revise the main pieces of climate and energy legislation, notably the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive. The revisions make the policy framework for sustainable energy more stringent and ambitious. While the legislative framework offers a good amount of flexibility to Member States to design the policy measures according to their needs and framework conditions, accurate monitoring, projecting and evaluation are essential elements of implementation. Importantly, the legislation is strongly interrelated and needs to be implemented and reported in an integrated, consistent way, including through the updates and implementation of the National Energy and Climate Plans, and their biannual integrated progress reports.

With these challenges in mind, the topic aims to support the implementation of the main pieces of legislation in the field of sustainable energy, notably of the Energy Efficiency Directive (Scope A), the Renewable Energy Directive (Scope B) and the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Scope C).

Under the call 2024, proposals are invited for the Scopes A, B and C, i.e. proposals for actions to support Member States in the implementation of:

• the Energy Efficiency Directive (Scope A).
• the Renewable Energy Directive (Scope B).
• the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (Scope C).

Proposals are expected to focus on one of the 3 scopes established below. The scope addressed should be specified in the proposal's introduction. In case a proposal addresses elements of more than one scope, the added-value of a cross-cutting approach should be adequately explained.

Actions under this topic are expected to:

• Promote and enable exchange of insights and sharing of best practices within/ across Member States.
• Provide support, technical advice and tools for contextualisation and specification of requirements, in general and according to the national and regional context.
• Scope, assess and model the impact of implementation options to comply with EU legislative requirements, thereby contributing to the design of more effective policies.
• Support the monitoring and evaluation of policy implementation.
• Develop and apply methodologies to more accurately measure, calculate and account for contributions made under the specific policy measures and programmes.
• Develop and support integrated methodologies for areas and sectors that are addressed by different policies and pieces of legislation, notably approaches for integrated collection of data, calculation/accounting, verification, monitoring, evaluation and reporting.
• Monitor and model energy and non-energy impacts of integrated solutions; gather data for the energy and buildings sector.

Scope A: Support for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency Directive

Actions under Scope A are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Energy Efficiency Directive^[1], in particular those that are reinforced or newly introduced with the recast, notably:

• the Energy Efficiency First Principle, supporting Member States in the operational implementation of the provisions and helping develop related assessment methodologies, tools and benchmarks, including for the application of the principle in planning and investment decisions in energy networks, as well as in planning and investment decisions at regional and local level or in projects below the thresholds as set out in the Energy Efficiency Directive.
• the Energy Efficiency targets, including new methods to collect and integrate different sources of data, to forecast trends and to evaluate policies and measures.
• the role of the public sector in delivering the specific targets established for the public sector, e.g. by supporting Member States in developing strategies, mapping public buildings and gathering and calculating data from public bodies.
• the Energy Savings Obligations and Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes, supporting Member States in the design and implementation of the schemes and in the calculation of contributions and evaluation of measures.
• Contractual Rights of consumers in the area of heating and cooling, supporting Member States and regulatory bodies in putting in place provisions and standards matching the requirements and information needs of consumers and complementing the implementation of the respective articles.
• Energy Services, supporting Member States in putting in place standard contracts and quality control schemes, moreover platforms/databases that facilitate access to qualified and certified energy services providers.
• Comprehensive Assessments for Heating and Cooling, supporting Member States in collecting the necessary data and carrying out the assessment of national heating and cooling potentials as well as for putting in place policies to ensure that, in line with Article 25 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, potentials identified are being realised.
• For Policy Support actions addressing energy audits and energy management systems, please refer to call topic LIFE-2024-CET-BUSINESS.
• For Policy Support to public authorities for the implementation of the energy poverty related provisions of the EED, please refer to call topic LIFE-2024-CET-ENERPOV.
• For Policy Support actions addressing private finance for sustainable energy, please refer to call topic LIFE-2024-CET-PRIVAFIN.
• For actions addressing technical support and capacity building towards renewable-based and efficient district heating and cooling systems, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-DHC.

Scope B: Support for the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive

Actions under Scope B are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), in particular those introduced or reinforced under the Fit for 55 Package and REPowerEU Plan through the amending Directive (EU) 2023/2413^[2].

Specifically, proposals should support public authorities in charge of the transposition and implementation of the Directive by addressing only one of the areas below:

1. Provisions related to the permit-granting process. Proposals should support the joint development of new tools, sharing of best practices, and training programmes for speeding up and streamlining permitting procedures through an EU community of practitioners in RES permitting consisting of the contact points established under Art. 16 of the RED and other permit-granting authorities, including at regional and local level.
2. Provisions related to the development of plans designating renewables acceleration areas for one or more broad types of renewable energy sources, e.g. a) wind; b) solar thermal; c) solar photovoltaic; d) geothermal energy; e) ambient energy; f) tide, wave and other ocean energy; g) biogas, including effective environmental impact mitigation measures.
3. Provisions related to the development of enabling frameworks to promote and facilitate the development of renewables self-consumption, including for jointly acting renewables self-consumers. Proposals should support and target national or regional authorities in the update, monitoring and /or evaluation of the implementation of national/regional/local frameworks implementing the above provisions. In particular, proposals should address the practical implementation of energy sharing by renewable self-consumers in the same building or multi-apartment block or within a wider geographical location (without necessarily the need to form an energy community) and measures to promote it in cooperation with all relevant actors.

• For actions addressing technical support and capacity building for the transition towards renewable-based and efficient district heating and cooling systems, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-DHC.
• For actions supporting the roll-out of heat pumps, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-HEATPUMPS.

Scope C: Support for the implementation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive

Actions under Scope C are expected to address core provisions and aspects of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD)^[3], in particular those that are subject to major changes introduced under the Recast of the EPBD.

Actions should address in particular aspects in one of the three main focus areas as established below, even if not limited to these:

1. Actions to enhance the effectiveness and coherence of instruments designed to improve the energy performance of buildings through a higher number of and deeper renovations, notably:

• as regards Minimum Energy Performance Standards, support for developing the standards at Member State level and for developing the necessary monitoring tools; support for developing an enabling framework including technical assistance and financial measures that accompanies the introduction of Minimum Energy Performance Standards as part of the national Building Renovation Plans.
• as regards Minimum Energy Performance Requirements and towards Zero-Emission Buildings, support for the up-dating of calculations and cost-optimality methodologies including up-dating of the software.

2. Actions to support the transition to a climate-neutral building stock, notably:

• as regards Zero Emission Buildings (ZEB), support for Member States to define benchmarks and refine and implement the concept against the national context, for instance by identifying criteria, thresholds and other parameters and framework conditions relevant for the definition and implementation of ZEB-standards at national level for new and existing buildings.
• as regards the Global Warming Potential of buildings, support for the setting up and implementation of the life-cycle Global Warming Potential (GWP) calculations with a view to setting up a European framework for whole life carbon reduction, notably by building on existing initiatives at national level and seeking to replicate most effective practices, and by helping integrate the calculations in the national policy frameworks and fostering the cross-policy exchanges.

3. Actions to support an optimal roll-out of buildings data and information tools, notably:

• as regards information tools, support for the re-scaling of EPCs including for the identification of the worst-performing buildings; refining and up-dating the methodologies to calculate the energy performance classes and to provide other mandatory and voluntary indicators to be included in EPCs; integration and methodological coordination of EPCs with the Smart Readiness Indicator (SRI) and with other disclosure and planning tools like Building Renovation passports.
• as regards buildings data, improvement of the methodologies to collect, aggregate and report data; support for national authorities for questions of data governance; support for the design and definition of functionalities for national databases as established in the proposal for a revision of the EPBD, including methodologies to collect and integrate data from different sources, such as EPCs, inspections, building renovation passports, SRI and calculated or metered energy consumption; moreover, support to national authorities in ensuring an effective transfer of the information from the national database to the EU Building Stock Observatory (BSO); support to national authorities for ensuring consistency between buildings data from the EU BSO and official data at national level.
• For actions supporting specifically the market up-take of Energy Performance Certificates and the Building Renovation passport, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-BETTERRENO.
• For actions supporting specifically the accessibility of buildings data to building owners, operators and third parties and the harmonisation of data models and standards, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-BETTERRENO.
• For actions providing support to the EU BSO beyond the scope of national authorities’ contributions, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-BETTERRENO.
• For actions supporting the implementation of provisions related to heat pumps, please refer to topic LIFE-2024-CET-HEATPUMPS.

For all Scopes, proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries.

For all Scopes, the Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of up to EUR 1.75 million would allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities, and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts. This demonstration should include a detailed analysis of the starting point and a set of well-substantiated assumptions, and establish clear causality links between the results and the expected impacts.

Proposals submitted under this topic should demonstrate how they will contribute to:

• Increased understanding and knowledge in public administrations in charge of implementing European energy legislation; improved collaboration of implementing bodies within and across Member States.
• More effective implementation of provisions, including better planning, design and evaluation of policy measures; more consistent implementation of legal provisions across energy legislation, energy policy and energy sectors.
• Use of appropriate tools and methods that facilitate availability and access to data; improved quality of data and better monitoring; use of more accurate calculation and Measurement & Verification (M&V) methodologies, including for cross-sector use of energy; improved quality of reporting; improved understanding and measurement of the impacts and non-energy benefits, also in view of the circular economy.
• Improved understanding of potentials and market barriers.

Proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the two sets of indicators provided for the topic (below), when they are relevant for the proposed activities. They should also propose indicators which are specific to the proposed activities. Proposals are not expected to address all the listed impacts and indicators. The results and impacts should be quantified for the end of the project and for 5 years after the end of the project.

The indicators for this topic include:

• Number of public authorities with increased capacities and better access to information and data.
• Number of public authorities and stakeholders using tools, resources, information and data established and provided by the activity.
• Number of policy measures, implementing acts and related documents improved by the activity.
• Number of monitoring and reporting tools and documents improved by the activity.
• Number of references in policy-relevant documents, such as impact assessments, guidance documents etc.

Proposals should also quantify their impacts related to the following common indicators for the LIFE Clean Energy Transition subprogramme:

• Primary energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Final energy savings triggered by the project in GWh/year.
• Renewable energy generation triggered by the project (in GWh/year).
• Reduction of greenhouse gases emissions (in tCO₂-eq/year).
• Investments in sustainable energy (energy efficiency and renewable energy) triggered by the project (cumulative, in million Euro).

[1]Directive (EU) 2023/1791 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 13 September 2023 on energy efficiency and amending Regulation (EU) 2023/955 (recast).

[2]Directive (EU) 2023/2413 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 18 October 2023 amending Directive (EU) 2018/2001, Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 and Directive 98/70/EC as regards the promotion of energy from renewable sources

[3]Directive 2010/31/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 19 May 2010 on the energy performance of buildings.