The Adoption of Taxonomy Requirements to Facilitate the Green Transition of the Buildings Sector

Abstract

For direct investment towards activities that significantly contribute to the achievement of the European Green Deal objectives, the European Union has adopted “Taxonomy Regulation”, which also applies disclosure requirements to financial institutions that finance the construction, renovation, or acquisition of buildings. For this reason, the financial sector needs methodologies and guidelines, adapted to the national situation, to define the primary energy thresholds to be used when assessing sustainability and financing the acquisition of real estate. This paper presents the methodology developed to identify 15% and 30% of the most energy-efficient national building stock in Lithuania based on EPC data. As a result, functional primary energy indicator (FPEI) threshold values are set for 17 distinct categories of existing buildings built by 31 December 2020. The 15% FPEI thresholds range from 81 kWh/m2 for warehouse buildings to 228 kWh/m2 for swimming pool buildings. Similarly, the 30% FPEI thresholds span from 104 kWh/m2 for warehouses to 303 kWh/m2 for foodservice buildings. The methodologies and threshold values are compared to other countries’ practice and recommendations are provided.