For the attention of Madame the Minister for the Ecological Transition, Biodiversity, Forests, the Sea and Fisheries, Copy for Monsieur the Prime Minister

Subject: Open letter denouncing the structural and legislative failures of the energy-renovation schemes in France

Madame the Minister for the Ecological Transition,

As a private landlord in Auvergne, in VICHY, and as a citizen concerned by the crucial stakes of the energy transition, I wish to bring to your attention the glaring failures of the public schemes regarding energy renovation.

I had already alerted our deputies of all parties combined in a letter (attached for information) of July 2022 concerning the dead end that the energy renovation of dwellings represented, imposed under threat of a rental ban.

In their current state, these schemes, although financed by significant public funds, prove not only ineffective in reaching France's climate objectives, as underlined by numerous experts and bodies, but also profoundly unjust towards hundreds of thousands of owners confronted with administrative, technical and legislative obstacles.

I. The proven failure of the energy-renovation schemes

Firstly, allow me to recall the recent reports of the Court of Auditors, as well as sectoral analyses, bringing to light particularly worrying results:

1. Alarming figures regarding the performance of the MaPrimeRénov' scheme: Each year, four to seven billion euros of public money are channelled towards the thermal renovation of buildings, an important lever to act on for the reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions. For what results?

We learned from the Court of Auditors that the scheme was not up to the stakes. According to the magistrates, on 1 February 2023, since its launch in 2020, that is, in the space of 3 years… THREE years, out of 644,000 financed files, only 2,500 dwellings had really left the category of "thermal sieves". One must insist on this figure to take the measure of the unrealism of the objectives; 2,500 dwellings out of a stock estimated (underestimated?) at 4.7 million F and G combined! That is 0.05%… (…) In the hypothesis where you managed to multiply that by 20, and taking "only" 20% of the F and G stock while being optimistic, you would need no less than 10 years and a budget of 30 billion…

This failure reflected a profound inadequacy of the scheme to the climate emergency under cover of billions spent.

This scheme, although inscribed within the framework of Law no. 2019-1147 of 8 November 2019 relating to energy and climate, aims at a 55% reduction of greenhouse-gas emissions by 2030, an objective manifestly compromised.

2. Support for ineffective works rather than for global renovations:

3. The rebound effect: an ignored problem. As several international studies have demonstrated, the rebound effect often cancels out the energy savings achieved. This consequence is aggravated by the absence of rigorous control of post-works performance in France.

4. The slowness and opacity of the administrative procedures: - Owners must wait several months, even more than a year, for their files to be processed, without transparency on the deadlines.

Concrete example: My partner, xxxxxxx xxxxxx, began her procedures for a large-scale renovation as early as 9 January 2024 with the RENOV' AIDES34 support advisor (11 rue PUECH DE LABADE 34370 CREISSAN) ref xxxxxxxx and was able to obtain all the estimates and planning authorisations only in the middle of the second half of 2024, with a compliant file filed on 4 September 2024, which has remained blocked for months without clear justification.

Here is one year gone by, including 4 months of waiting (for now) for a hypothetical, and written, agreement to launch the works. Knowing that the validity date of the estimates has expired for months. The examiner, the DLC3 34 CA Hérault méditerranée in SAINT-THIBERY, places not only us in a situation of difficulty but also all the other owners who went through this support advisor, who confirmed the blockages to us.

Worse, how can one accept that examiners declare over the telephone that one can start the works and therefore incur the costs, without even having a written agreement to secure the financing of the operation?

II. Legislative and planning contradictions that block the necessary renovations

I draw your attention to the current regulation which frequently opposes planning restrictions to climate imperatives, preventing owners from carrying out high-performance renovations:

1. The blockages linked to the Local Urban Plans (PLU) - Article L151-18 of the Planning Code confers on the PLU the possibility of restricting certain works, according to aesthetic or heritage criteria. Result: massive refusals for external thermal insulation (ETI) works under the pretext that they modify the appearance of the façades facing the street.

1st concrete example: In the village of Nézignan-l'Évêque, heat pumps are already present on very many façades, but new applications are systematically rejected by the Architects of the Buildings of France (ABF). This inequality of treatment feeds a feeling of injustice and provokes anger and considerable losses of time.

2nd concrete example: In VICHY, I need external insulation for one of my houses, for a large-scale renovation. Interior insulation not being feasible except by spending considerable sums because of the mouldings and other pipes that would have to be removed, changed and reinstalled after insulation, leading moreover to a loss of habitable surface, but incidental in view of the cost. Like a majority of properties, it is in the town and faces the street with no garden between the pavement and the façade. The planning department's response? Because of the width of the pavements (for an ETI takes 14 cm… 14…), respect for the original architectural design, homogeneity, etc.… It is refused. See attachment. So what if one cannot gain the letters on the EPD because of this refusal? The lawyer of the ADIL specifies "it is a grey area, we do not know, because if one produces a supporting document to demonstrate that one cannot fully insulate for administrative reasons, one has no idea how to proceed in this kind of situation with regard to the ban on increasing rents." As for my counsel, he specifies "And the property will in any case be financially devalued, both on a sale and on a rental, by its rating induced by the administrative refusal of the works, therefore possibly constituting a form of prejudice". Proposal:

2. The opposition of the Architects of the Buildings of France (ABF) - Article R425-1-7 of the Planning Code imposes a binding opinion of the ABF for works in protected zones. This requirement, although justified for the preservation of heritage, blocks projects indispensable to energy efficiency.

3. The absurd restrictions on solar panels and heat pumps - Many PLU prohibit the installation of solar panels on roofs visible from the public way or refuse heat-pump units placed at several metres in height.

III. An environmental inconsistency in the choice of financed equipment

Despite the recent votes in the European Parliament aiming to ban fluorinated gases (F-gas) by 2035, through European Regulation (EU) 2024/573, France continues to finance from public funds equipment using R32, whose global warming potential (GWP) is high. What is more, as things stand, you still authorise the installation of systems whose deployment the elected officials are banning within a few years. Can you not adapt in the process and show reactivity, or even anticipation?

1. Incompatibility with the European objectives: - The European regulation on fluorinated gases, adopted on 16 January 2024, progressively bans these gases in several categories of appliances as early as 2027. - Yet our public aid continues to support these technologies instead of promoting alternatives such as heat pumps using R290, a natural fluid more respectful of the climate.

IV. Indispensable reforms to save the energy transition

1. Accelerate the processing of files: Do you find it normal that it takes 4 months and more to have a decision on a renovation? 4 months during which households continue to squander their finances on heating because it is blocked at the administrative level. Lack of personnel? Instructions to dissuade recourse to private support advisors? Lack of competence in the examination of files? Only your teams will be able to define what is wrong.

Proposals: - Digitalise the administrative procedures to guarantee real-time follow-up and reduce the deadlines. - Propose a simplified appeal mechanism in the event of unjustified refusal or excessive slowness.

2. Impose global renovations: - I propose that you and your teams work on the reorientation of public aid towards large-scale works as a priority, combining insulation, ventilation and the replacement of heating systems. 3. The problem of zero-rate loans for the remaining cost:

Everyone announced to us that it was a formality. Know that my partner suffered numerous refusals from banks concerning this zero-rate loan and that the only one that was ready to grant it put to her a questionnaire worthy of an intelligence service, as if she wanted to buy a risky building, asking her for counterparts in the form of subscribing to contracts or of bank domiciliation. As things stand, she was unable to have recourse to it. The banks do not play the game.

3. Guarantee territorial equity: - I suggest setting up a national inquiry into the decisions of the ABF and the local authorities to identify the abuses or inconsistencies in the processing of applications, then corrective measures. 4. An energy transition that sets aside climate change. The energy transition as it is currently wished for excludes the imperative changes to be put in place in the legislation, the PLU, or the regulation of insurance (whose climatic incidents cost them a fortune), which requires identical replacements in the event of damage, in order to adapt buildings to the consequences of climate change.

How can one understand that the political sphere is not capable of adapting the rules and the PLU so that buildings are authorised to receive "indestructible" roofings in place of the earthenware tile that breaks under the blow of the storms and hail showers previously described as exceptional phenomena and today become recurrent, and tomorrow our daily lot with the amplification of the weather phenomena? I have moreover written a letter on this subject to our deputies which I hold at your disposal, so strategic is the subject as well.

A call to political responsibility

The current schemes fail to reach their objectives and harm the citizens' confidence in the State. The flagrant injustice of the decisions, the dissuasive slowness of the processes and the legislative inconsistencies undermine France's climate ambitions.

Owners can no longer wait. We are already suffering a housing shortage, aggravated by the exit of G-classified dwellings from the rental market and soon of F-classified dwellings. Far from having convinced all owners, the failures of the schemes in place combined with the incessant changes of the EPD — as if they had been developed by incompetents not mastering their subject — lead to a distrust of owners, many of whom make the choice to withdraw their property from the market for lack of renovating or selling it. Sprinkle that with a justice of extreme slowness that favours bad-paying tenants over landlords, the whole garnished with significant increases in property taxes, and one obtains an explosive cocktail from a societal, economic and political point of view.

It is urgent to reform these schemes, to invest in durable technical solutions and to re-establish a coherence between regulation and ecological transition.

I remain at your disposal to deepen these proposals and to participate in any exchange aiming to build an ambitious, equitable and effective energy-renovation policy.

Awaiting a reply, I ask you to accept, Madame the Minister, the expression of my distinguished consideration.

Attachments: - Letter of 17 July 2022 on the financing of energy renovation - Letter of 17 July 2022 on the problem of insurance rules in the face of climate change