Policy for Energy Transition in the Built Environment. Policy review Article 4.1 Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations 2015-2020

In this report, we present a review of policy for energy transition and making the built environment more sustainable in the period 2015-2020. Our review concerns policy for which the expenditure is accounted for in Article 4.1 of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations budget.

Results in brief

• The policy we reviewed is from the Energy Agreement for Sustainable Growth (2013). This sought to achieve 100 PJ (PetaJoules) of energy savings, including 53 PJ in the built environment.
• Not all policy instruments had predetermined targets in terms of energy savings or other sub-targets such as label steps. In addition, not all instruments have been evaluated for effectiveness and efficiency, or evaluated at all. As a result, it is not possible to provide a complete picture of the effectiveness and efficiency of the entire range of policy instruments.
• Based on the policy evaluations and estimates in the Climate and Energy Outlook 2019 (KEV), it can be concluded that the instruments of this policy article have contributed between 3.7 and 3.8 PJ to energy conservation; the STEP (Incentive Scheme for Energy Performance in the Rental Sector) has contributed the most, followed by SEEH (Incentive Scheme for Energy Conservation at Home) and NEF (National Energy Savings Fund). In the built environment, a total of 31 PJ of energy has been saved. The overall target of 53 PJ has therefore not been achieved.

In order to achieve the targets with more certainty, we recommend using instruments on the basis of a cautious estimate, employing combinations of effective instruments and focusing on achieving targets and cost-effectiveness.