This new report provides a diagnosis of energy demand-side policy needs at European level, with a particular focus on effective implementation of the Energy Efficiency First principle. The analysis covers four focus topics of New Societal Trends: (i) digitalisation of the economy and of private lives; (ii) circular economy and low-carbon industry; (iii) shared economy, and (iv) prosumaging (combining production, consumption and storage of energy).
The diagnosis is based on the analysis of EU-level legal acts and preparatory documents, as well as stakeholder engagement through semi-structured interviews and workshops, involving invited experts (including EU policy makers) and newTRENDs team members. The analysis focuses on: (i) providing an overview of diverse policy challenges and responses (policy instruments) in the field of each newTRENDs focus topic at the EU level; (ii) identifying relevant policy makers at the EU level that have an impact on policies development; (iii) identifying needs of policy makers in terms of energy demand models.
The report contributes to developing discourse on possible changes in the EE policies in the frame of New Societal Trends, and to providing knowledge base for strengthening the modeling of relevant policies in demand-side models in the EU.