District renovation and cooling and heating systems? A link that is still missing in the National Building Renovation Plans
The European Commission has recently published the detailed analysis of 16 National Building Renovation Plans (NBRPs). These plans will steer the renovation policies for the years to come in each European country, thus their importance for building decarbonisation. Member states were obliged to submit the drafts in December 2025 and now they have the Commission’s feedback to improve and deliver the final NBRPs by December 2026. Sixteen member states, Belgium (Walloon Region), Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden, have submitted their contributions on time or with only limited delays. It remains to be seen whether the remaining countries will submit their plans in time for the final deadline.
The whole building sector was looking forward to the Commission’s assessment. However, the Building Decarbonisation Partnership did not just stand waiting: it took action. One of its key actions was to analyse in detail the interlink between the renovation policies and the Local Cooling and Heating Plans (LCHPs). Why? The more you renovate buildings, the less energy demand you will have for district systems. It would be a pity to invest huge amounts of money to deploy a district heating that will be over dimensioned in a few years. That’s why smart planning is essential, and NBRPs and LCHPs should be closely aligned. The former are required by the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) to be delivered by Member States, while the latter are required by the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)to all municipalities over 45.000 inhabitants.
Confused by all the acronyms? Keep reading and prepare for another one: BREACH.
The Partnership’s research covered ten countries —Denmark, Germany, The Netherlands, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Czech Republic, Italy, Spain and Hungary— and reached a bold conclusion: currently there are no links between renovation policies and district heating and cooling policies. To address this gap, decision-makers first need to become aware of it, and the NBRPs are a crucial opportunity within the existing regulatory framework.
With this objective in mind, the Partnership held a workshop together with the Commission officers on 12 June to debate how the NBRP assessment could integrate these concepts. Indeed, Member States were supposed to state in their NBRPs how they would phase out fossil fuel boilers before 2040, and district heating plays a crucial role in decarbonising energy supply. Within that specific chapter the Commission assessed if the Member states are aligning building renovation policies and local heating and cooling planning.
COUNTRY | ASSESSMENT |
Belgium (Walloon Region) | LHCP mentioned |
Bulgaria | LHCP mentioned, including coordination mechanism with NBRP |
Denmark | LHCP mentioned, with adopted legislation |
Germany | LHCP mentioned, with adopted legislation |
Spain | LHCP mentioned |
France | LHCP not mentioned, although district heating is funded by the State |
Cyprus | Does not include concrete details on LHCP |
Croatia | Does not mention LHCP |
Lithuania | LHCP mentioned |
Netherlands | Heat plans mentioned, with adopted legislation. However, link to LHCP is not clear |
Austria | LHCP mentioned |
Portugal | Does not mention LHCP |
Romania | LHCP mentioned |
Slovenia | Does not mention LHCP |
Finland | Does not mention LHCP |
Sweden | Does not mention LHCP |
BREACH planning: how does it work?
Although the assessment of the NBRPs checks whether LHCPs are mentioned, genuine alignment between the two planning processes remains far from being achieved. Even the approved regulations do not integrate Building REnovation And Cooling and Heating planning. Did you spot the hint? BREACH planning is the Partnership’s proposed solution to solve this problem. On a voluntary basis, municipalities can integrate renovation as a solution for their Local Heating and Cooling Plans.
The process for a BREACH plan will be as follows:
Set your team. Municipalities should appoint who will do the planning process.
Diagnose your municipality. Get the data and analyse it.
Prioritise districts. Identify which are the neighborhoods that you should start working with.
Plan your scenarios. Should you launch a district renovation program? A district cooling or heating system? Maybe at the same time?
Program and finance. Look for resources and funding opportunities.
Implement and monitor results. Did you effectively improve the life of your citizens?
The Building Decarbonisation Partnership is currently working on a detailed roadmap explaining how municipalities can follow this process and deliver BREACH plans, while complying with the LHCP requirements. The approach is already being tested with several European cities, and the first results will be published in the coming months.
Are you interested in this approach? Ready to BREACH it? You can follow the Partnership’s work on our webpage and contact the Partnership Coordinators (bd-coordinators@urbaninitiative.eu) to learn more about it.