Towards a carbon neutral housing stock in the Netherlands

The Paris Agreement on climate change implicates huge improvement for the energy performance of buildings and the energy infrastructure and provisions. The European Union formulated high ambitions be realised in the built environment. The existing housing stock covers a major share of energy use and is seen as high potential to contribute to the savings. Therefore, the Netherlands aims for a carbon neutral housing stock in 2050. The consequences of this goal and the ways of how to realise it are yet unclear. Most emphasis in policies and practices is on reducing the energy demand for heating by renovation of the existing stock and bring the dwellings to a higher energy performance standard. The targets, policies and programmes are already applied for several years now and the question arises of what progress can be seen in renovation activities and energy saving results. This paper is based on data on improvement rates of the Dutch non-profit housing sector and insight in the relation with actual energy reduction. Based on these insights the challenges for 2050 are discussed