3.1. Reducing energy consumption and carbon footprint by smart and sustainable use

The energy sources and consumption patterns of Europe's industries, transport systems, buildings, districts, towns and cities are largely unsustainable, leading to significant environmental and climate change impacts. Real-time energy management for new and existing near-zero-emission, near-zero-energy and positive energy buildings, retrofitted buildings as well as active buildings, highly efficient industries and mass take-up of energy-efficient approaches by companies, individuals, communities, cities and districts will require not only technological advances, but also non-technological solutions such as new advisory, financing and demand management services and input from the behavioural and social sciences while at the same time taking into account questions of public acceptance. In this way improved energy efficiency may provide one of the most cost-effective ways to reduce energy demand, thereby enhancing security of energy supply, reducing environmental and climate impacts and boosting competitiveness. To meet these challenges the further development of renewable energies and the tapping of energy efficiency potentials are important. Reducing energy consumption and eliminating energy waste, while providing the services that society and economy need, requires not only that more efficient, cost-competitive, environmentally friendly and smarter equipment, products and services are brought to mass market but also the integration of components and devices in such a way that they cooperate to optimise the overall energy use of buildings, services and industry. To ensure full adoption and full benefits for consumers (including the possibility for them to monitor their own consumption), energy performance of these technologies and services needs to be customised and optimised for and in their application environments. This requires researching, developing and testing innovative ICT and monitoring and control techniques as well as demonstration projects and pre-commercial deployment activities to ensure interoperability and scalability. Such projects should aim to contribute to significantly reducing or optimising the overall energy consumption and energy costs by developing common procedures to collect, collate and analyse energy consumption and emissions data to improve the measurability, transparency, public acceptability, planning and visibility of energy use and its environmental impacts. Security and privacy by design to protect monitoring and control techniques should be safeguarded in these processes. Developing platforms and applying them for verifying the stability of such systems will help to ensure reliability. A substantial share of energy is consumed for heating or cooling purposes across the Union, and the development of cost-effective and efficient technologies and system integration techniques, such as network connectivity with standardised languages and services in this area, would have a major impact in reducing energy demand. This requires research and demonstration of new design techniques and systems and components for industrial, commercial and residential applications, for example in decentralised and district supply of hot water, space heating and cooling. This should encompass different technologies, such as solar, thermal, geothermal, biomass, heat pumps, combined heat and power, and recovery of waste energy, and meet the requirements of near-zero-energy buildings and districts and support smart buildings. Further breakthroughs are needed, in particular, in storage for thermal energy from renewable energy sources and to foster the development and deployment of efficient combinations of hybrid heating and cooling systems, for centralised and de-centralised applications. Urban areas are one of the largest consumers of energy in the Union and emit a correspondingly large share of greenhouse gases, while generating a substantial amount of air pollutants. At the same time, urban areas are affected by decreasing air quality and climate change and have to develop their own mitigation and adaptation strategies. Finding innovative energy solutions (e.g. energy efficiency, electricity and heating and cooling supply systems, and integration of renewables in the built environment), integrated with transport systems, smart construction and urban planning solutions, waste and water treatment as well as ICT solutions for the urban environment is therefore crucial in the transformation towards a low-carbon society. Targeted initiatives in support to the convergence of industrial value chains of the energy, transport and ICT sector for smart urban applications need to be envisaged. At the same time, new technological, organisational, planning and business models need to be developed and tested at full scale according to the needs and means of cities and communities and their citizens. Research is also needed to understand the social, environmental, economic and cultural issues that are involved in this transformation.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-11-04 · Text as adopted (Official Journal); later amendments are not incorporated in this text.