PROGRESS BUT INSUFFICIENT AND UNEVEN 

The EU BCT shows a marked acceleration of building decarbonisation in recent years. After the index fell to –0.5 points in 2021, it increased sharply to 11.9 points in 2022 and further to 19.2 points in 2023, representing the strongest consecutive improvements since the start of the tracker. However, part of this progress reflects warmer weather and short-term adjustments following the energy crisis, including reduced energy demand and behavioural changes in energy use. While some structural improvements are visible, particularly in electricity decarbonisation, progress across the different drivers of building decarbonisation remains uneven. Another important challenge to assess building decarbonisation progress concerns the definition of the reference pathway itself.  

On the EU BCT scale – which measures progress from 0 in 2015 to 100 in 2050 – the tracker reached 19.2 points in 2023, while the reference pathway indicates that progress should have reached 28.1 points. This leaves a decarbonisation gap of approximately nine points.  

MAIN RESULTS  

• CO₂ emissions from energy use in buildings declined by 21% between 2015 and 2023, reaching approximately 352 MtCO₂. However, the climate neutrality pathway would have required a reduction of nearly 32% over the same period.  
• Final energy consumption in households and services fell by 7.5%, broadly aligning with the pathway. However, this progress is largely driven by reductions in service-sector buildings, while residential energy consumption remains significantly above the required trajectory.  
• Renewable energy deployment increased from 22.6% to 31%, but the pathway requires a share of over 43% by 2023. The largest gap remains in renewable heating and cooling, which continues to expand, but much too slowly.  
•  Renewable electricity shows the strongest progress, reaching 45.4% of electricity consumption in 2023 and exceeding the reference pathway (set at 41.2%). 
•  Renovation investment remains insufficient, with cumulative investments reaching around €3 trillion (2015 prices) by 2023, which represents only 59.4% of the level required to remain on track. 

BUILDING DECARBONISATION AND HOUSING AFFORDABILITY: TWO SIDES OF THE SAME OPPORTUNITY 

The results of this EU BCT edition underline that falling behind on building decarbonisation also has significant and growing economic and social costs for households.  

Improving building decarbonisation is a prerequisite for achieving affordability, now and in the long term. Building decarbonisation is not only a climate objective but also a key lever to improve quality of life and social equity, and reduce the cost of living for households across Europe. Especially now, with global energy markets increasingly volatile since the start of the war in the Middle East in early 2026 and an energy crisis looming, potentially worse than all recent ones combined, the cost of inaction on buildings cannot be ignored.  

TURNING EU POLICY AMBITION INTO REAL PROGRESS ON THE GROUND 

Based on the EU BCT results, the priority is now clear: actions must be more targeted, more ambitious and more effective.  

Policymakers and stakeholders should use the insights from the EU BCT to direct investments where they are most needed: towards the residential building stock, where progress remains insufficient, and towards the most vulnerable households, who are most exposed to high energy costs. At the same time, accelerating the deployment of renewable heating and cooling solutions must become a central focus, given the persistent and widening gap in this area.  

The coming years will be decisive to turn policy ambition into tangible and sustained progress.