At today’s renovation rate of around 1% of buildings per year, a timely transition of the EU building sector towards climate-neutral levels by 2050 cannot be ensured. This white paper from the European Commission provides a country-by-country overview of the most important public schemes identified across the EU, and investigates new private financial products in place to stimulate more energy efficiency investments in residential, commercial and public buildings. Good practices are identified based on the criteria of impact, cost effectiveness, ambition level of energy efficiency upgrades, funding sustainability/continuity, scalability and outreach to hard-to reach groups.

Key words: energy management, Internet of Things (IoT), large building controls/automation, smart cities