EU heat pump strategy faces serious barriers
10th October 2025
BELGIUM: EPEE has warned that the continued deployment of heat pumps faces serious barriers, due to electricity-to-gas price ratios, insufficient grid investment, and a lack of coherence across legislative frameworks.
EPEE, the European Partnership for Energy and the Environment, maintains that the upcoming revision of the European Heating and Cooling Strategy provides an “essential opportunity” to address these issues and unlock the full potential of heating, cooling and electrification.
The comments come in response to the European Commission opening a public consultation on its Heating and Cooling Strategy, which is expected to be published early next year. The consultation is open until 20 November.
The Heating and Cooling Strategy aims to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector by promoting energy efficiency, integrating renewable energy sources, and repurposing waste heat from industry into district heating and cooling systems, with the goal of achieving climate neutrality by 2050.
“Our industry fully supports a fast and ambitious decarbonisation of the sector to achieve Europe’s Green Deal and REPowerEU targets,” said EPEE director general Russell Patten. “Heat pumps are the cornerstone of decarbonisation. They offer an immediate, scalable, and highly efficient solution for comfort heating and cooling in all types of buildings, but also for industrial processes.”
In its new position paper, EPEE advocates for a comprehensive approach that integrates energy efficiency, the reuse of waste heat and cold, affordability, skills development, and policy coherence.
It highlights that the recovery and utilisation of waste heat from industrial processes, supermarkets, and data centres remain largely untapped. At the same time, addressing the electricity-to-gas price ratio is seen as essential to make efficient clean technologies more competitive, as electricity is still heavily taxed compared to gas in many member states. Lowering VAT on electricity and reforming energy levies would significantly improve affordability and accelerate adoption, EPEE states.
The group also emphasises the importance of investing in workforce training and certification to address shortages of qualified installers, while empowering consumers with clear and reliable information about the benefits and cost savings of energy-efficient technologies.
Legislative coherence is another area of central concern to EPEE. To prevent regulatory overlaps and market distortions, EPEE calls for harmonisation of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive, the F-gas regulation, and upcoming PFAS restrictions.
Finally, EPEE calls on the European Commission to provide effective guidance for member states on improving access to “clean” technologies through mechanisms such as social leasing models and low interest loans.
