On board the Eurostar when arriving in Brussels, the first thing passengers see is the looming shape of the city’s Justice Palace, a monstrously large building with a dome reminiscent of St Peter’s in Rome.

Unlike the seat of the Catholic church though, the Justice Palace is covered in scaffolding, and has been for decades. Construction crews even recently started refurbishing the scaffolding itself as there is no end in sight for the works.

It is a good illustration of Europe’s big bad building problem. Existing edifices are often difficult and expensive to renovate and bring up to code; new builds are easier to regulate and get right during the design phase.

Buildings are a sleeping giant: they soak up 40 per cent of Europe’s energy supply and emit more than a third of CO₂ emissions. Although existing buildings are being renovated, the rate of just 1 per cent makes it far too low to make a difference.

In October, the EU launched its Renovation Wave initiative, which aims to refurbish 35 million buildings by 2030 and could, if done right, create 160,000 new jobs.

The bloc’s top energy official, Kadri Simson, said: “We will tackle the many barriers that today make renovation complex, expensive and time-consuming, holding back much-needed action.”

That means new rules on energy performance standards, more money to help householders access funding for insulation and schemes that will ramp up the use of renewable energy.

A Covid-19 recovery fund deal worth €750bn aims to help the EU’s 27 members invest in areas like sustainable transport, energy-savings and digitalisation. That big cash injection is being touted as one of the final pieces of the buildings puzzle.

“The urgent task now is to ensure a fair share of the EU recovery funds is used for high-quality renovations: this is essential for jobs, air quality, energy poverty and emission cuts. At the same time, people running renovation programmes in ministries, cities and local authorities need all the help and advice they can get,” says Brook Riley of Rockwool, a Danish firm specialising in insulation materials.

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of an increased renovation rate in many countries is bureaucracy, or just lack of awareness about where subsidies or cheap loans can be accessed to carry out works.

In Belgium, homeowners can get free rooftop solar panels from the local administration, but due to an obscure set of rules, if you do not have enough usable square footage, you are not eligible.

Polish cities have some of the worst air pollution in Europe, largely caused by inefficient wood-burning heating systems. Last year, the government made billions of euros available for refurbishment schemes but a dispute about who should handle applications hampered the initiative.

The UK government is a big fan of home improvements and recently launched the Green Homes Grant. The pandemic has also pushed homeowners into shelling out for renovations; data shows that Brits spent on average £4,000 since March. It makes sense, as everyone has spent more time at home.

Schemes like ‘Solution4Renovation’ have recently launched to help homeowners in France, Spain and Ireland navigate the labyrinth of forms and paperwork. Its ‘one-stop shop’ gathers all the information needed in one handy platform.

Reduced emissions and lower energy bills are obvious benefits, but there are also factors like better health, as improved ventilation leads to better air quality, and knock-on effects in other sectors.

New buildings in EU countries that include parking garages must include all the infrastructure needed to install electric vehicle points, for example, which should boost the size of the charging network as more construction happens in cities.

Renovating 35 million buildings in 10 years will need a lot of human resources. There are already programmes in place in countries like Poland and Romania that are retraining fossil fuel industry workers as insulators, roofers, wind turbine installers and more.

That is the beauty of the push for greener buildings. Its potential positive impact on vast swathes of our economies and job markets is immense. Given the current climate, it is probably just what we all need.

On board the Eurostar when arriving in Brussels, the first thing passengers see is the looming shape of the city’s Justice Palace, a monstrously large building with a dome reminiscent of St Peter’s in Rome.

Unlike the seat of the Catholic church though, the Justice Palace is covered in scaffolding, and has been for decades. Construction crews even recently started refurbishing the scaffolding itself as there is no end in sight for the works.

It is a good illustration of Europe’s big bad building problem. Existing edifices are often difficult and expensive to renovate and bring up to code; new builds are easier to regulate and get right during the design phase.

Buildings are a sleeping giant: they soak up 40 per cent of Europe’s energy supply and emit more than a third of CO₂ emissions. Although existing buildings are being renovated, the rate of just 1 per cent makes it far too low to make a difference.

In October, the EU launched its Renovation Wave initiative, which aims to refurbish 35 million buildings by 2030 and could, if done right, create 160,000 new jobs.

The bloc’s top energy official, Kadri Simson, said: “We will tackle the many barriers that today make renovation complex, expensive and time-consuming, holding back much-needed action.”

That means new rules on energy performance standards, more money to help householders access funding for insulation and schemes that will ramp up the use of renewable energy.

A Covid-19 recovery fund deal worth €750bn aims to help the EU’s 27 members invest in areas like sustainable transport, energy-savings and digitalisation. That big cash injection is being touted as one of the final pieces of the buildings puzzle.

“The urgent task now is to ensure a fair share of the EU recovery funds is used for high-quality renovations: this is essential for jobs, air quality, energy poverty and emission cuts. At the same time, people running renovation programmes in ministries, cities and local authorities need all the help and advice they can get,” says Brook Riley of Rockwool, a Danish firm specialising in insulation materials.

One of the biggest obstacles standing in the way of an increased renovation rate in many countries is bureaucracy, or just lack of awareness about where subsidies or cheap loans can be accessed to carry out works.

In Belgium, homeowners can get free rooftop solar panels from the local administration, but due to an obscure set of rules, if you do not have enough usable square footage, you are not eligible.

Polish cities have some of the worst air pollution in Europe, largely caused by inefficient wood-burning heating systems. Last year, the government made billions of euros available for refurbishment schemes but a dispute about who should handle applications hampered the initiative.

The UK government is a big fan of home improvements and recently launched the Green Homes Grant. The pandemic has also pushed homeowners into shelling out for renovations; data shows that Brits spent on average £4,000 since March. It makes sense, as everyone has spent more time at home.

Schemes like ‘Solution4Renovation’ have recently launched to help homeowners in France, Spain and Ireland navigate the labyrinth of forms and paperwork. Its ‘one-stop shop’ gathers all the information needed in one handy platform.

Reduced emissions and lower energy bills are obvious benefits, but there are also factors like better health, as improved ventilation leads to better air quality, and knock-on effects in other sectors.

New buildings in EU countries that include parking garages must include all the infrastructure needed to install electric vehicle points, for example, which should boost the size of the charging network as more construction happens in cities.

Renovating 35 million buildings in 10 years will need a lot of human resources. There are already programmes in place in countries like Poland and Romania that are retraining fossil fuel industry workers as insulators, roofers, wind turbine installers and more.

That is the beauty of the push for greener buildings. Its potential positive impact on vast swathes of our economies and job markets is immense. Given the current climate, it is probably just what we all need.