EU Tracker – Local heating and cooling planning in Luxembourg
Summary
What is the status of the transposition of Art 25.6(EDD) and its implementation ?
The EED article 25.6 provision will only concern the city of Luxembourg, which alongside other municipalities in the country has favorable conditions to develop such plans.
All Luxembourgish municipalities have adhered to the national Climate Pact Programme, for which an energy plan covering the heating and cooling sector is one of the selectable measures. Municipalities are provided with a support framework by the Climate Agency to develop such plans. Their capacity to carry out heating and cooling planning is currently constrained by a lack of clear guidance, human resources and access to harmonized energy-related geodata. Building such capacities in public administration would foster locally adjusted pathways for decarbonising a highly fossil-dependent building stock, and the Climate Pact agreement could further strengthen the emphasis on the role of local heating and cooling plans.
Detailed assessment
The legal framework and the obligations
Luxembourgish municipalities may develop an energy plan, which covers elements of heating and cooling planning, as part of their commitment to the national Climate Pact agreement
Overview of the legal frameworks per governance level
| National | Luxembourg’s Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan for 2021-2030 (NECP) defines the country’s key targets and objectives for its energy and climate policy to 2030. The draft updated NECP submitted in 2023 sets a 40.3 % Renewable energy share target for the heating sector (mainly from biomass). |
| Local | There is no obligation for municipalities to carry out heating and cooling planning in Luxembourg. However, all municipalities have voluntarily adhered to the Climate Pact agreement aligned with the European energy awards, which was updated in 2021 and which aims to support the implementation of Luxembourg’s NECP. Under this scheme, municipalities commit to align their activities with national climate policies and objectives, and are obliged to develop an annual activity report from which a catalogue of measures to reduce emissions and improve energy efficiency are chosen. One of the selected measures (1.2.1) contains designing and adopting an energy plan. This plan contains clear element of heating and cooling planning as it should: assess the current heat utilization in the municipalities; quantify and determine the potential for waste heat recovery, renewable energy sources and centralized heat networks; and define priority areas for building renovation. These assessments should be presented in a map coupled with an implementation plan and a timeline. The preparation of the energy plan should also involve the participation of external stakeholders. The quality and level of detail of these plans varies greatly across municipalities. |
The support framework
A support framework for municipalities has been established within the framework of the climate pact, with some room for improvement
The climate pact provides a certain amount of technical and financial support to interested communes, including the provision of a technical advisor for each commune. Data access is currently being greatly improved, with a thermal cadastre soon to be made available to municipalities.
Provided Support
| Technical and organisational | 3/5 | Luxembourgish municipalities can find details of the measures, best practices and toolbox for each of the measures on the Climate Pact programme’s website, and benefit from the advice of their appointed counsellor. However, there is no precisions template or guidelines for the energy plans, and a large gap of quality and precision among the municipalities’ plans could be observed. |
| Financial | 3/5 | Municipalities receive a grant from the energy agency managing the climate contract program depending on the size and the level of commitment, which is based on the number of measures it has fulfilled from the previous year. Luxembourg has also established a climate energy fund that provides financial support to municipalities to carry out specific topical actions, which cover energy planning (up to 30 000€) and renewable or waste energy-based district heating investment ( up to 40%). |
| Staff & skills | 3/5 | Participation in the climate contract obliges municipalities to have a minimum of one staff dedicated to climate and energy issues. It should however be noted that this staff covers all themes, not just the thermal energy transition. Municipalities are also provided with one climate and energy counselor who operates in a small number of municipalities. While providing technical support, it may not be sufficient to overcome a shortage of in-house human resources in local authorities on energy planning related issues, and for drafting local heating and cooling plans of higher quality and precision. |
| Access to data | 3/5 | Municipalities have access to precise data for public buildings and their energy demand, while the access to data for residential and industrial buildings is limited. The National Energy Agency is currently developing a database for municipalities with energy consmption data at the street level, which aims to be used for modeling scenarios for heating and cooling demand and the potential for renewable sources for heating. A cadastre has been developed to visualise the potential of renewable energy production, which currently is mapped for solar power. Data on energy infrastructure is of relatively good quality, as municipalities are obliged to carry out regular monitoring. Overall, there is room for improvement to make energy-related geodata accessible for public authorities in Luxemburg for the purpose of heating and cooling planning and for properly informed decision-making on its rapid decarbonisation. |
