Identification of vulnerable EU regions considering asbestos presence and seismic risk / JRC 2023

ID 20333 | 05.09.2023

The European Union's building stock is old, heterogeneous and with a progressively slow transformation. In addition, it is energy inefficient, and many existing buildings contain hazardous materials, such as asbestos, placing users’ health in danger. As the building stock ages and deteriorates, the risk of asbestos exposure increases.

Moreover, natural disasters, such as earthquakes, can trigger asbestos fibre release due to damage of the built environment. Building renovation has been singled out in the European Union policies as key initiative to drive energy efficiency in the sector but also to deliver additional benefits such as better indoor conditions and enhanced resilience and structural safety.

The report identifies relevant characteristics to be considered for building stock deep renovation (such as number, age, energy saving potential, asbestos presence, and seismic risk) to unlock the quantification of wider benefits. For the first time, indications on the presence of asbestos in the residential building stock at EU regional NUTS3 level in high seismic risk areas are presented.

The results will inform policy makers on prioritisation of regions in need of renovation that can benefit from deep renovation to ensure safe and healthy indoor environments besides reduced energy consumption. Moreover, it can be used as a tool and give insight to improve emergency response and post-disaster remediation guidelines.
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Asbestos presence in dwellings

The asbestos quantities in residential buildings were estimated following the method introduced in (Maduta et al., 2022) and explained in Section 2.2. The asbestos use was first estimated at country level and disaggregated at regional level employing the national quantities of asbestos use in dwellings and the number of dwellings at regional level, per period of construction. Figure 10 shows the estimated average quantity of asbestos per dwelling at NUTS3 across the EU.

Figure 10. Estimated average quantity of asbestos in the EU dwellings, NUTS3 level (version 2021)

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