Sustainable development is a guiding principle in the European Union, and subnational and local governments have an important role to play as they have a shared responsibility in creating a sustainable society. The quest for economic progress cannot be separated from social and environmental considerations.
We should not regard the precious resources of the planet we are temporarily granted as endless. We need to be more efficient in the way we manage them. We need to change our consumption and production patterns and shift towards a more sustainable, low-carbon and resource efficient economy if we aim to improve the competitiveness of Europe while maintaining a high quality of life for our citizens.
The circular economy package, published by the European commission, is a step in the right direction as it underpins a new model based on re-use and recycling resources and avoiding landfilling waste, while emphasising the resource efficiency opportunities in the building sector.
“The construction and building sectors account for about half of all our extracted materials”
We, the European alliance group in the Committee of the Regions, have launched a discussion on developing EU policy and regional strategies towards sustainable living, which is also the title of a seminar we host during the Open Days. There is no sustainable living without sustainable buildings. The more building materials are used efficiently, the fewer environmental impacts there are. Housing cannot be conceived anymore just as a means to provide residential houses. Housing needs to adapt to the current challenges and address the increase in construction costs, energy efficiency and environmental concerns. The construction and building sectors account for about half of all our extracted materials; they are energy and water consuming and the demolition waste they produce makes up a large share of the total waste produced in the EU.
Sustainable living requires new ways of conceiving municipal planning and landscaping; innovative architectural design and construction techniques and materials, such as prefabrication or green roofs, with the highest energy rating and a low resource concept, micro energy production solutions and a higher uptake of renewable energy, and a diversified, greener transport system. Also core to this is the planning needed to ensure that services can still be provided at a local level. The depopulation of rural areas has also meant a reduction of services and greater travel required to access them, this clearly needs to be addressed by regional, national and European policy.
Legislative frameworks should provide certainty to investors and consumers and encourage the creation of new emerging markets and eco industries with strong potential for job creation, notably in the energy, waste management sectors and recycling industry. The barriers hampering the transition to more efficient business models, such as the limited access to finance for innovative firms, the lack of information on green opportunities and lack of cooperation between different levels of governments needs to be addressed.
Local and regional authorities (LRAs) play a key role when it comes to making green public investment in local infrastructure, buildings, waste recycling plants and transport systems, and help drive changes in citizens' behaviour. Needless to say they cannot do it alone as their role needs to be matched with appropriate resources, capacities and governance tools. We call for a coherent long-term vision for the renovation of the entire existing building stock and regret the absence of explicit and specific financial commitments to promote energy efficiency investments at the local and regional level.
The European structural and investment funds can be helpful in supporting the shift to a more environmentally friendly economy and for upskilling human capital in priority areas related to sustainable living at local level.
“Legislative frameworks should provide certainty to investors and consumers and encourage the creation of new emerging markets and eco industries with strong potential for job creation”
In our view, promoting resource efficient rural areas and ensuring an urban-rural balance in sustainable living should also be a priority. There is considerable potential in rural areas for both energy generation and reducing consumption. Rural households and small businesses face several disadvantages with regards to their energy use, particularly due to the nature of the building stock and the reduction of population base which makes services viable. Rural buildings are significantly older and their renovation is more costly for their owners. Insulation is an example as individual rural homes cannot benefit from the same economies of scale that urban homes with multiple tenants may have. Energy poverty is more prevalent in rural areas, where the dependence on high price fossil fuel is higher than in urban areas and the uptake of renewable energy is still lagging behind.
The long-term vision to 2050 and the shift to a more efficient economy will not be a reality without close cooperation between the levels of government. And given that by definition, action is taken locally, LRAs must be enabled to invest as much as they need in local and regional sustainable energy projects and not be the main victim of austerity rigour.