An average EU household uses more energy on heating than on anything else: space and water heating represented 77.6% of the final energy consumed by households in 2023.
The process of replacing fossil fuels with renewables, and other zero-carbon solutions in heating and cooling has been slower than in the case of electricity generation: the share of renewables in the heating and cooling sector reached 26.2% in 2023, according to Eurostat, while about 2/3 of all fossil gas consumed in the EU was used to generate heat or cold in buildings and industry.
Increasing renewables in heating and cooling
The Renewable Energy Directive (EU/2023/2413) includes specific measures to accelerate the development of renewables in heating and cooling. This includes binding national targets where each EU country must increase the share of renewables in heating and cooling every year, and a list of measures from which EU countries must pick in order to achieve them. The directive also includes targets on the share of renewables in district heating and cooling and in buildings.
It requires EU countries to introduce measures to ensure energy system integration – that heating and cooling contribute to a more efficient, economic and flexible energy system; it also promotes the recovery and use of waste heat and cold. In addition, the directive requires EU countries to ensure that there are enough qualified installers of heating and cooling systems; it also includes measures for integrating renewables in the EU building stock, the largest heating and cooling end-use sector.
The EU renewable energy target has strong links with the EU energy efficiency targets and measures. The more energy saved, the easier it is for EU countries, and the EU as a whole, to reach their renewable energy targets. In addition, renewable heat sources such as ambient and geothermal energy, used mainly via heat pumps and solar thermal, provide low temperature heat (up to 200° C), working most optimally with highly energy efficient well-insulated buildings or low temperature process heat (for example, breweries and food drying). Decarbonising the heating and cooling sector is 1 of the 3 focus areas of the renovation wave strategy.
The Delegated Act on renewable cooling adopted in 2023 complements the Renewable Energy Directive by setting rules on how energy used for cooling can count towards the Directive’s targets. This methodology rewards the best available technologies, such as highly efficient reversible heat pumps and free cooling by district cooling networks, while also incentivising the future deployment of innovative cooling technologies. It further enables EU countries to submit their own, more accurate methodologies. So far, only France has submitted a revised methodology for urban district cooling networks to better reflect their renewable energy performance.
EU Heating and Cooling Strategy
Planned for publication in the first quarter of 2026, the EU Heating and Cooling Strategy will support the implementation of current legislation to accelerate decarbonisation of the sector and improve its efficiency and system integration through
- integrated planning of energy infrastructure
- district heating and cooling development
- waste heat recovery
It will address both supply and demand by, respectively, accelerating the deployment of clean heating and cooling and encouraging their use in important sectors like buildings and industry.
Announced in the Clean Industrial Deal and the Action Plan for Affordable Energy, this strategy will build on the 2016 Heating and Cooling Strategy, the Energy System Integration Strategy, and other existing EU legislation.
A call for evidence and open public consultation were launched (end August 2025) to collect input on the strategy. In addition, the Commission organised a stakeholder event on the Electrification Action Plan and the Heating and Cooling Strategy in November 2025.
It also co-organised the Waste Heat Recovery Stakeholder Forum on 8 December 2025, for further discussions and consultation.
2016 Heating and Cooling Strategy
The EU Heating and Cooling Strategy (COM/2016/051) provided a first overview of the energy consumption and fuel mix of the heating and cooling sector in the main end-use sectors: buildings and industry. It also set out actions and tools to support the heating and cooling sector's contribution to the EU objective of climate neutrality by 2050. These actions and tools, implemented in the Clean Energy for all Europeans’ package adopted in 2019, relate to increasing renewable energy and energy efficiency in this sector, while applying in parallel an integrated approach to the energy system.
Studies on heating and cooling
To assist policymaking, develop new legislation and ensure evidence-based implementation, the Commission has conducted a series of studies on the heating and cooling sector – the most recent published in 2023.
Comprehensive assessments on efficient heating and cooling
In line with Article 25 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, EU countries are requested to carry out a comprehensive heating and cooling assessment, and notify the Commission when completed. These assessments should be carried out every 5 years, together with integrated National Energy and Climate Plans.
The methodology of the assessments is set out in Annex X of the Energy Efficiency Directive. Assessment shall provide an overview of the heating and cooling sector in the country, including statistical data and a summary of relevant policies. They shall also present an analysis of the economic potential for efficiency in heating and cooling, identifying suitable technologies for supplying low-carbon and energy-efficient heating and cooling using a cost-benefit analysis. Lastly, additional and future policy measures in heating and cooling shall be proposed. Further guidance for the assessments is provided in a Commission recommendation. The Commission has also prepared voluntary reporting templates in all official EU languages.
The reports, assessments and their annexes for 2015, 2020 and 2024 per EU country are available in their original language. Translations into English are available for 2015 and 2020.
Related links
- News: Have your say on the EU’s Electrification Action Plan and the Heating and Cooling Strategy (28/08/2025)
- Commission Delegated Regulation for the comprehensive assessment of the potential for efficient heating and cooling (EU/2019/826)
- Commission Recommendation on the comprehensive assessment of the potential for efficient heating and cooling under Article 14 of the Energy Efficiency Directive and annex (EU/2019/1659)
- Synthesis report on the evaluation of national notifications related to Article 14 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, Joint Research Centre (2018)
- EU Strategy on Heating and Cooling (COM/2016/51)
- Commission Staff Working Document Review (SWD/2016/24)