20/20/20 Objectives

The European Union recently adopted the Energy & Climate Package. This package sets ambitious energy and climate targets, the 3x20 objectives: 20% emissions reduction, 20% increase of renewable energy and 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020. In order to reach these targets, the building sector is a key area to look into. This sector is a big consumer of energy and has on the other hand a great potential both for saving energy as well as for energy generation with renewable sources.

For a Citizens' summary of the EU climate and energy package, click here.

RES directive

In June 2009 the EU Directive 2009/28/EC on the promotion of the use of energy from Renewable Sources entered into force. The Directive establishes a common framework for the use of Renewable Energy within the European Union in order to limit greenhouse gas emissions and to promote cleaner transport. Each Member State has a target for the use of energy from renewable sources, which is calculated according to its gross final energy consumption for the year 2020. This target is in line with the overall '20-20-20' goal for the Community.

For the complete text of the EU RES directive, click here.

Concerted Action on the RES Directive (CA-RES)

CA-RES is an initiative to support Member States to transpose and implement the RES Directive. More information on this initiative can be found on www.ca-res.eu.

Mapping Renewable Energy Pathways  towards 2020

The ‘RES Directive’ sets the objective of reaching at least 20% of the EU’s final energy consumption through renewable energy sources (RES) by 2020. The directive states that every Member State has to come up with a National Renewable Energy Action Plan (NREAP). The action plans set out how each Member State aims to achieve its national target in the three sectors (electricity, heating and cooling, transport. In this brochure, EREC gives an overview of these RES action plans.

The Covenant of Mayors

The Covenant of Mayors is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities, voluntarily committing to increase energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources on their territories. By their commitment, Covenant signatories aim to meet and exceed the European Union 20% CO2 reduction objective by 2020. www.eumayors.eu