A meeting on Thursday of the committee on mobility and public works with the public buildings administration set out a strategy for bringing these buildings in-line with modern energy standards.

According to discussions, only 35% of public buildings were constructed after 2000 and included energy-saving measures while half of all the buildings require urgent measures, the committee found.

Schools and administrative buildings account for three quarters of the buildings requiring work. In some, like the Athenée, the work is already complete. For others, like the Lycée Michel Rodange, it is ongoing.

Buildings which have no potential for an energy retrofit have been given low priority.

The work comes at a considerable cost, with the State spending €71.4m from 2014-2018 on cleaning up old buildings. The efforts have reportedly led to savings of 876 tonnes of CO2.

The State has budgeted €95m for similar works in 2020, rising to €108m in 2023.

Updating the energy efficiency of public buidings is one of several measures aimed at helping Luxembourg achieve its CO2 reduction savings of 55% by 2030, and zero net emissions by 2050.

According to the public buildings administration, Luxembourg has exceeded its objective of cleaning up 15,750 m2 of net surface from 2014 to 2020, cleaning 23,000 m2.