Today, nine environmental organisations have sent a letter to EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calling for an end to sales of new gas boilers using the ecodesign framework. 

Access the letter [1]

NGOs call on the European Commission to move away from fossil gas following the recent publication of RePowerEU, an EU strategy seeking to make the bloc independent from Russian gas. [2]

However, the strategy as it is now will leave the EU dependent on 24 billion cubic metres of fossil gas imports every year from Russia alone, NGOs estimate, despite a growing number of evidence that there are options to completely cut these imports. [3] This is equivalent to an annual bill worth 27 billion euros, estimated at today’s prices. [4]

Every day, the EU pays 1 billion euros to Russia in exchange for energy, EU High Representative Josep Borrell said last week. [5]

NGOs argue that a boost for heat pumps powered by a strengthened ecodesign regulation for heating appliances would be instrumental in slashing the bill. Today, the heat pump market share in the building stock is just around 6%. [6]

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On behalf of the signatories, Marco Grippa, Programme Manager, ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards, said:

Coupled with improved energy efficiency, a massive uptake of heat pumps is our best shot to cut the EU’s dependence on Russian gas – and stop funding the invasion of Ukraine. Heat pumps are an energy-efficient, readily available technology – we only need political will to give it a decisive push. 

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Ecodesign is a perfect and immediate opportunity for the European Commission and EU member states to take decisive action to ease and accelerate consumer access to heating options that do not rely on fossil fuels, environmentalists say.

The European Commission is currently revising the ecodesign rules for water and space heaters, which establish the requirements that heating appliances must meet to be allowed on the single market and ensure inefficient heating systems can’t access the market. 

The Commission is also reviewing energy labels for home boilers. The proposal currently on the table downgrades all fossil fuel boilers to the lowest energy categories (F and G), but still falls short of introducing a clear phase-out.

Campaigners call on the European Commission to establish a minimum efficiency level of 110% for heating appliances to be allowed on the EU market, that  would effectively prevent the sale of all fossil fuel appliances, which all are below 100%. 

Last year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) called on governments to completely phase out fossil fuel-based heating by 2025. [7]

List of signatories: ECOS – Environmental Coalition on Standards, the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), CLASP, Bond Beter Leef Milieu (Belgium), Zero – Associação Sistema Terrestre Sustentável (Portugal), Green Transition Denmark, E3G, Kyoto Club (Italy), and Legambiente (Italy).

Notes to editors: 

About ecodesign and energy labelling regulations

Ecodesign and energy labelling regulations currently apply to a number of home appliances and electronics, such as washing machines, TVs, and dishwashers. Rules establish minimum energy efficiency levels for appliances to be allowed on the market and sustainability-related requirements such as availability of spare parts or repairability.

To stimulate innovation and improve energy efficiency, every product sees its ecodesign and energy labelling rules tightened every few years. For example, the threshold for maximum energy consumption is made more demanding to leave energy-guzzling appliances out of the market. That is precisely what campaigners are calling for in the case of heating appliances – the energy-efficiency bar should be raised to a level where fossil-fuel gas appliances would not reach, being effectively phased out of the market. A more detailed explanation can be found here.

The EU legislation for energy labels and ecodesign has been estimated to bring energy savings of approximately 230 million tonnes of oil equivalent (Mtoe) by 2030. [8]

On 30 March, the European Commission announced that it would apply ecodesign principles to most products, seeking to make sustainable products the norm. [9]

Ecodesign and energy labelling policies have been in force on the EU market since 1994 and were expanded in 2004. 

[1] NGO Letter: Enhancing the role of Ecodesign and Energy Labelling of heating products to deliver the heat pump rollout and the objectives of REPowerEU https://ecostandard.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Ecodesign-and-energy-labelling-for-REPowerEU-Letter-to-EC.pdf

[2] REPowerEU: Joint European action for more affordable, secure and sustainable energy – https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_1511

[3] https://www.raponline.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/rap-e3g-ember-bellona-stop-russian-gas-2025-final2.pdf

[4] https://tradingeconomics.com/commodity/eu-natural-gas

[5] https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/how-war-ukraine-ends-matters-says-eu-foreign-policy-chief-2022-04-06/

[6] https://www.ehpa.org/market-data/market-report-2021/

[7] https://www.iea.org/reports/heating

[8] https://ec.europa.eu/info/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/energy-label-and-ecodesign/about_en

[9] https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_22_2013

Ivo Cabral, press manager at ECOS – ivo.cabral@ecostandard.org