Let’s explore the EU regulations on thermal energy and the key role played by citizens in their implementation
When fossil fuels are burned, they release large amounts of carbon dioxide (a greenhouse
gas), trapping heat in our atmosphere. We have observed the devastating consequences of climate change in the degradation of our environment, the large-scale loss of our biodiversity, as well as increasing health and financial costs on our society.
Aware of this grim reality, the European Union has set out to modernise our energy
system towards renewable sources in a community-oriented way. While 49.3% of the net electricity generated in the EU in 2025 came from renewables, 75% of the thermal energy in our buildings is still supplied by fossil fuels. As fossil fuels are not commonplace
in Europe, they must be imported, increasing both our energy bills and our dependency on third countries. The financial numbers behind our dependency alone are staggering, with the total cost of fuel imports between 2021 and 2024 costing our citizens and businesses 1.8€ trillion (or slightly below Spain’s nominal GDP in 2025). Furthermore, an energy transition based simply on market-based solutions risks exacerbating inequalities, as low-income households can remain locked in inefficient homes running on polluting and
expensive fossil fuels.
Such dependencies, and their climate, social, economic and geopolitical consequences
are a threat to the long-term sustainability of any nation or our Union,
and must be tackled.
So, what is the EU doing to become energy independent?
A lot, in fact.
The EU is wisely tackling this energy transition in a double-pronged approach. The EU
institutions – Commission, Parliament and Council – have created legislation to transition our national energy systems to renewables; what is more, they have done so in a way that empowers citizens, putting renewable heating and cooling in their hands, and thus ensuring that the benefits of the energy transition are shared among our local communities.
On the one hand, the social redistributive aspect of the transition is covered by the Renewable Energy Directive and the Internal Electricity Market Directive. These legal acts introduced energy communities, citizen-led legal entities that can take ownership of their
local renewable energy infrastructure. This model is particularly relevant for district heating and cooling (DHC), which relies on collective infrastructure and long-term local governance rather than individual solutions. As these networks are particularly complex projects, citizens often join forces with their municipality and local SMEs, strengthening their social fabric and increasing the acceptance of new projects.
On the other hand, and to cut our dependence on external fossil fuels for heating and
cooling, the EU has agreed to several obligations. Firstly, Member States must identify the potential of district heating and cooling by carrying out economic and geographic analyses (Directive (EU) 2023/2413, Art.15a). Secondly, they must increase the share of renewables in heating and cooling by at least 0.8% annually until 2026, and 1.1% annually until 2030. In addition, Member States are encouraged to increase the share of renewable energy and waste heat in district heating and cooling by 2.2 percentage points annually (2021-2030), while laying down the necessary measures to achieve this in their National Energy and Climate Plans. Thirdly, the energy efficiency of our homes and renewable technologies is increased through the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) and the European
Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD). The EED mandates Member States to carry out comprehensive assessments of efficient heating and cooling every 5 years (Directive EU/2023/1791, Arts. 23 & 24), while asking municipalities with more than 45.000 inhabitants to deliver local heating and cooling plans (Directive EU/2023/1791, Art.25.6). In a testament to the link between Europe’s renewables and community empowerment, the same article mandates that these municipal plans should “assess the role of energy communities and other citizen-led initiatives” in achieving the objectives of the heating and cooling plan.
This link to a socially fair transition is once again clear in the building renovations directive, where Member States must ensure that the primary energy of Zero Emission Buildings comes from nearby energy from renewable sources, an efficient district heating network, or energy from a renewable energy community (Directive EU/2024/1275,Art.11).
MUSE DHC: empowering citizens to turn legislation into practice
To deliver on these common European objectives, the European Commission funds
environmental and climate-action projects across the Union through its LIFE Programme.
One such project linking renewables with citizen empowerment is MUSE-DHC.
Our project contributes to the implementation of the above-mentioned objectives of citizen-led renewables in several ways. Firstly, it brings together citizens, municipalities, and technical partners to develop efficient and democratic district heating across 5 Member States: The Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Ireland and France. The project will offer these communities knowledge on governance models to ensure a democratic ownership of the district heating networks. It will also offer business models to strengthen their financial viability. Finally, it will deliver investment plan templates to offer every citizen, municipality, and community the chance to develop their own community-led district heating network, thus actively contributing to Europe’s energy independence goal.