Insulation of the roof of a house using wood fiber panels.

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O. PERROT / SIPA

In a report published Tuesday the High Council for the Climate (HCC) distributes the bad points.

The independent advisory body notes that France is lagging behind in decarbonising the building sector.

It therefore pleads for massive investments and an overhaul of the aid system to make energy renovation efficient.

The goal of carbon neutrality in 2050

With 18% of emissions in 2017 and even 28% by adding heat and electricity production, the building is one of the four major sectors emitting greenhouse gases.

It must therefore "be completely carbon-free for France to achieve its carbon neutrality objective in 2050", underlines Corinne Le Quéré, president of the HCC.

According to the report, "France has already accumulated a significant delay on the trajectory of the national low carbon strategy (SNBC) in this sector".

"The rate of decline in emissions must go from a gentle slope, between 2 and 3% at the moment, to a steeper slope of 5% per year in this sector in a few years", notes Corinne Le Quéré.

For this, the HCC insists on a "massification" of the renovation of housing, public and tertiary buildings.

Annual public and private investment, currently around 13 billion euros, "will have to be multiplied at least by two in a few years".

The effectiveness of the investments in question

Beyond the amounts, the HCC questions the effectiveness of the investments.

The report calls into question the predominance of "logic by gestures": isolated acts of renovation, such as changing a boiler, "generally do not allow major energy gains".

As a result, the rate of overall and efficient renovations "stagnates, at a rate of 0.2% per year on average".

Between 2012 and 2016, around 87,000 single-family homes jumped at least two energy classes, while the SNBC, which plans 500,000 renovations per year during this five-year period, aims at a minimum target of 370,000 complete renovations per year in 2022, 700,000 longer term.

To encourage the logic of global renovations, the High Council supports the Citizen's Convention on the climate, which has declared itself in favor of compulsory energy renovation by 2040. It also pleads for the elimination within three years of aid to individual gestures in the “MaPrimeRénov” device.

France "at the back of the pack"

For this report, the HCC has reviewed German, Swedish, Dutch and British policies.

And France is "at the back of the pack" with the most "energy-intensive" housing.

But renovation is also important for employment and “reducing vulnerabilities”.

In 2017, 6.7 million people lived in fuel-poor housing, classified F or G. The High Council recommends that from 2025, they be classified "indecent" and can no longer be rented.

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