Energy renovation: targets slashed by more than half, associations denounce an "abandonment"

The target for comprehensive renovations has been drastically revised downwards, from 600.000 to 250.000 homes per year by 2030.

While the General Secretariat for Ecological Planning was still aiming for a massive acceleration in 2023 to eradicate energy-inefficient buildings, the new roadmap marks a strategic retreat.

For the Cler Network, a federation of energy transition associations, this accounting review constitutes a "signal of abandonment of the ambitious policy" initiated two years ago.

Isabelle Gasquet, its advocacy manager, points to a "total inconsistency" between past promises and this cutback, even though the MaPrimeRénov' scheme had generated "strong demand" from households before being hampered by an insufficient budget to meet everyone's needs.

Beyond the battles over numbers, it is the fate of the "energy insecurity" that is worrying.

Manuel Domergue, director of studies at the Foundation for Housing the Disadvantaged, sees it as a decision dictated by "purely budgetary reasons" which inflicts a "double penalty" on the most modest: living in the cold while paying increasingly high bills.

He points out that winter energy insecurity causes approximately "10.000 deaths per year" and generates "800 million euros in annual healthcare expenses for Social Security".

The associations also criticize a "technical aberration" in the new roadmap, which favours changing heating systems at the expense of overall insulation.

"Installing a heat pump in a thermally inefficient building is like heating the street," Isabelle Gasquet protests.

She points out that without treating the building envelope, these systems do not improve either the comfort or the health of the occupants in the face of humidity and mold.

Even though energy savings certificates (CEE) are enhanced for large-scale renovations carried out by modest households, this remains insufficient to compensate for the disengagement of the State via MaPrimeRénov', says Mr. Domergue.

This reversal, which he describes as a "short-sighted calculation", risks finally breaking the dynamics of a building sector already tested by the "stop and go" policy, permanently disrupting the craftsmen who had structured themselves to meet the demand.

Illustrative image of the article via Depositphotos.com.