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Thermal insulation of buildings – no time to lose and make progress

Read what EU Commissioner for Energy Günther H. Oettinger writes in his message of greetings to EAE’s 2012 ETICS Forum in Strasbourg.

Dear ladies and gentlemen!

It is time to make significant progress in terms of energy efficiency. The efficient use of energy is a main challenge of energy policy – not only because of climate protection objectives, but especially as we have to face limited resources and potentially further increasing energy costs.

Here the energetic improvement of buildings‘ envelopes plays a major role: almost 70% of EU’s energy consumption of average private households are caused by heating and cooling. Even with existing technologies the energy consumption could be reduced by at least a half. In other words: we do not make use of energy saving potentials that could be realized economically and waste both limited resources and money. Improving the energy efficiency on the other hand leads to a win-win-win situation. The competitiveness of regions and companies will be improved, consumers will be relieved from energy costs, and the environment will be preserved.

By adopting the Energy Efficiency Directive we managed to establish a stable and reliable legal framework for necessary investments in energy efficient technologies and systems. Now we can develop competitive markets for energy services that will realize existing potentials actively. A look at the agenda of the 2^nd European ETICS Forum makes clear that this conference faces the challenge.

Günther H. Oettinger

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