Sustainable Heating and Cooling

Heating and cooling represent half of Europe’s energy demand, making their decarbonisation essential for climate neutrality. The revised Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requires Member States to establish a legislative framework for heating and cooling plans by October 2025, creating both an obligation and an opportunity to accelerate local action. Regional and Local Energy Agencies are already responding: as independent facilitators with public mandates, they support municipalities and regions in designing and implementing heating and cooling strategies, developing tailored fuel-switch programmes, and running renovation one-stop shops. Crucially, no single technology can provide the answer. A diversity of renewable-based solutions — from heat pumps to biomass, to modern district heating and cooling networks — must be scaled up and adapted to the diversity of regional circumstances. To succeed, EU and national support should prioritise the upscaling and replication of such local and regional programmes, where Energy Agencies are already leading the way.