In Focus

• 13 February 2012

  Energy Efficiency in Rural Areas: Call for Action

  On Tuesday 14 February, Energy Ministers will discuss the Commission proposal for an Energy Efficiency Directive. While discussions may focus on specific details of the proposal, the FREE initiative (Future of Rural Energy in Europe) wants to raise Member States' attention on one very simple fact: energy efficiency in rural areas is in a critical state and needs to be addressed.

  Rural households and small businesses face several disadvantages with regards to their energy use, particularly due to the nature of the building stock. Rural buildings are significantly older (in France, half of them predate 1950) and their renovation is more costly for their owners. When it comes to insulation for example, individual rural homes cannot benefit from the same benefits of scale that urban homes with multiple tenants may have. This situation, which applies to all Member States in various degrees, leads to higher fuel costs in rural areas, where the income per inhabitant is 21% to 62% lower.

  The Commission proposal unfortunately fails to take these challenges into consideration. To date, it has concentrated its efforts on cities, on the basis of their demographic importance and their contribution to half of greenhouse gas emissions. While FREE understands the Commission's logic, its members would like to rebalance the focus of EU-driven initiatives towards rural areas. For Member States, the benefits in terms of job creation at local level and CO₂ emissions reductions would be very significant. The impact on the lifestyles of rural communities could be even bigger. FREE believes that equal access to energy efficiency should be guaranteed to all citizens, wherever they are located.

  Rural and remote areas also present ideal conditions for the deployment of efficient forms of decentralised energy production in order to reduce energy losses along the grid. Through a combination of binding measures and policy recommendations, the EU has a role to play in providing the right framework for the deployment of clean and efficient technologies for end-users.

  For this to happen, some adjustments should be made to the proposal. For example, as part of Article 6, energy efficiency measures applied in predominantly rural areas (as defined by the OECD) could count double towards the achievement of the 1.5% annual energy saving target. This would encourage obligated parties to intensify their efforts in rural areas. Member States should remain free to designate obligated parties or take measures with an equivalent impact for rural areas.

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