Long-term renovation strategy to gear up Germany for reducing buildings emissions

Germany is seeking to make progress on greenhouse gas reduction in the building sector with a new long-term renovation strategy. The strategy is meant to help with implementation of EU legislation by providing a roadmap as well as a review mechanism for energy-efficient retrofitting of the national buildings stock. A core milestone in the strategy is the reduction of non-renewable primary energy consumption in the sector, which is meant to decrease from nearly 3,300 petajoules (PJ) to 2,000 PJ by 2030. "We need to make progress especially regarding the renovation of private and public buildings, which needs to happen in a quicker and better way," economy minister Peter Altmaier said.

In the context of its Climate Action Law, Germany has set itself the goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the building sector by 67 percent from 1990 levels by 2030. They had already shrunk by 42 percent in 2019. Every EU member state is required to submit a long-term strategy for the building sector to prepare for a "European renovation wave" announced in the context of the EU's Green Deal.