In 2010, CLER was very active in several EU energy policy area including the issue on the recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). As part of this, CLER organised a Workshop about EPBD and the future of energy efficiency in new and existing buildings on December 2, 2010.
The workshop aimed at raising awareness about EPBD, the new French regulation and the tools needed in order to reach the objectives set by the Law “Le Grenelle de l’Environnement” for existing buildings. The public targeted was national environmental NGOs and members of CLER network (local NGOSs, building consultancies, etc) and consumers organisations. There were 29 participants from 23 organisations.

See Program in French (169 kB pdf file).

Background:
Le “Grenelle de l’environnement”: a wide negotiation process organised in France for finding solution to environmental crisis, set up very ambitious targets for energy and CO2 emissions : - 38% for energy consumption and –50% for CO2 emissions by the end of year 2020. In order to ensure that the new regulations new buildings will be defined accordingly, CLER requested from authories to be involved in the discussions. Besides that, the recast of the EPBD was adopted in mid 2010.

CLER, participated in the discussions, which had a purpose to define the new energy regulation for new buildings. The law was published on 26th October, 2010 and the major conclusion are:
- the new maximum energy consumption limit will implicitly forbid the use of electrical heating, which is a major step forward for CLER, as it is a both a technical and social disaster;
- the “blowerdoor” test, which has a purpose is to verify the air sealing, will be mandatory for a vast majority of building projects;
- the maximum energy consumption limit, which is major improvement compared to the previous one, will (in average) nevertheless be over 50 kWh / m2 / year (which was the goal defined by the law “Grenelle de l’Environnement”)

CLER has also actively participated to “Le Plan Bâtiment Grenelle”, an official Committee, which is in charge of following the implementation of the law (decreasing the consumption of buildings by 38 % by 2020). CLER attended all the monthly meetings and will attend the following ones.

CLER participated on INFORSE-Europe Seminar on April 27 in Brussels, where Raphael Claustre made a presentation.
Raphael Claustre was also moderator on the Zero Carbon Road Tour presentation in Paris on September 10, 2010.

CLER has made regular specific articles on EPBD in the bimonthly publication, CLER Infos (in French).

The work of CLER on EU policy was supported partly by DG Environment's operational support to INFORSE-Europe.