December 2021 - Newsletter

Dear readers,

An important lesson from 2021 is that the global perception towards climate change and the urgency for undertaking actions has increased substantially. Next to the second year of COVID-19 and its impacts on energy and climate, the entire society has realized the aggressive impacts of climate change and new dilemmas appear in terms of how to use public funding. In the new financing period for the EU with the Recovery and Resilience fund, the Multiannual Finance Framework and the various funding streams, it is of utmost importance to ensure the balance between a sustainable economic recovery, climate protection and green growth, where energy and climate will be at the core of all decisions.

 Solutions of the past for investing and subsidizing fossil fuels for energy production and energy needs in buildings do not have a place in the new era.

In the period of sustained higher energy prices due to exogenous market factors of fossil fuels, each euro of subsidy towards the problem (fossil fuels), broadens the gap towards the solution, as it deepens the lock-in investments and conditions that jeopardize the energy transition. Although most Member States opted for short-term measures through direct or indirect on-bill financing, the vision of sustainable longer-term measures, such as massive energy refurbishment, must remain alive.

The Fit-for-55 package has provided a real hope for the future and the targets envisaged in both energy efficiency, climate change and renewable energy must not be watered down in the negotiations.

We, at IEECP, will keep on striving, through generating and sharing scientific and policy knowledge from our series of European funded projects, to contribute to this ongoing policy process.

Welcome to the last IEECP newsletter of 2021!

Vlasis Oikonomou, and the team at IEECP

VIDEOS

EVENT RECORDINGS

Webinar recording - “Energy Efficiency First in practice: implementing integrated approaches”

In September, the European Commission published new recommendation and guidelines entitled “Energy Efficiency First: from principles to practice”. This webinar complemented these new resources with two examples from Croatia and Sweden, discussing how implementing Energy Efficiency First (EE1st, or similar concepts) is about adopting more integrated approaches, respectively for investment decisions and for local energy planning. The webinar also presents the latest enefirst outputs, implementation maps and policy guidelines to support the design and implementation of integrated approaches for EE1st. The previous webinar presented examples from Ireland and UK and from France and the US at the second ENEFIRST webinar.

ENPOR Lunch Talk Discusses Minimum Energy Performance Standards for Buildings and Energy Poverty

Catch up on the third ENPOR Lunch Talk and discover how the Fit for 55 Package will help the energy poor considering the high rise in energy prices in Europe. The Lunch Talk included discussions on the minimum energy standards and how it alleviates energy poverty, as well as the importance of local and regional actions for deep building renovations in the private rented sector: ENPOR Lunch Talk - Energy Prices Skyrocket in Europe: Will Fit for 55 help the energy poor? • ENPOR 

PUBLICATIONS

Policy briefing: the EED energy savings obligation and energy poverty alleviation, by ENSMOV and Social Watt

The energy savings obligation (ESO) in the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) requires EU Member States to achieve energy savings through national policy measures. The ESO is the most significant energy efficiency measure in the European policy package, contributing around 50% of the overall EED energy efficiency target. The EU Commission’s proposed recast of the EED introduces a requirement for a share of the energy savings to be achieved among energy poor households. This policy brief provides an overview of the new requirement and explains how the shares are calculated for each Member State. It then
focusses on the policy measure that contributes the most to the aggregate achievement of the ESO target, the Energy Efficiency Obligation Schemes (EEOSs), which contribute 35% of savings. The briefing shares lessons from countries where EEOSs are used to alleviate energy poverty.

Climate action in the post-COVID world - Insights from EU-funded projects on how to build forward better

The recent IPCC report could not have been clearer about the urgent need to act on the climate crisis if we want to save the planet and ourselves. Although the COVID-19 pandemic has been a stark reminder that our well-being depends on the health of the planet, the recovery strategies offer a once-in-a-century opportunity for a genuine paradigm shift towards a society that respects planetary boundaries. What advice can the research community give to policymakers at this critical moment, against the backdrop of the decisive UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), to help them shape a greener, more equitable and prosperous future for all? EU-funded Horizon 2020 projects, including PARIS REINFORCE, have some ideas.

A multi-model analysis of long-term emissions and warming implications of current mitigation efforts

A PARIS REINFORCE study on warming outcomes of current policies and pledges. Most of the integrated assessment modelling literature focuses on cost-effective pathways towards given temperature goals. In the project latest article in the journal Nature Climate Change, partners use seven diverse integrated assessment models and project global energy CO2 emissions trajectories on the basis of near-term mitigation efforts and two assumptions on how these efforts may continue from 2030 to 2100. Despite finding a wide range of emissions by 2050, nearly all scenarios have median warming of between 2 and 3°C in 2100, implying possible futures with markedly different climate consequences. This is an important finding in the aftermath of COP26, during which several studies confidently estimated a warming of 2.7°C or 2.4°C in 2100, if either current policies or NDCs respectively are projected into the future. The study instead finds that the uncertainties are much greater, projecting a 2.3-2.9°C or 2.2-2.7°C of warming, respectively.

Supporting national authorities in enhancing the uptake and implementation of energy audits and energy management systems

The DEESME projects aims to enable the National Authorities of selected EU Member States or their national implementing bodies to enhance the uptake and implementation of energy audits and/or management systems within companies according to Article 8 of the Energy Efficiency Directive.  This article compiles a series of four documents elaborated in the DEESME project supporting both national authorities and companies.

Find out all latest DEESME reports and supporting documents in the project newsletter.

Guidelines on policy design options for implementation of E1st in buildings

This enefirst report adds a holistic perspective to the concept of Energy Efficiency First (E1st) and provides guidelines to promote integrated approaches for implementing E1st across different policy areas within the energy system. This contribution aims to break the silos in policymaking and implementation, with a focus on energy planning and investment schemes in the buildings and related energy sectors, where supply-side and demand-side options can be considered jointly to provide long-term benefits to society and the energy system as a whole. The report also provides a targeted review of the Fit-for-55 package proposed by the Commission in July, analysing the new or revised provisions that can be connected with the implementation of the E1st principle.

NEWS FROM THE PROJECTS

REGILIENCE – ambitiously supporting cities and regions on building climate pathways

As COP26 ends, leaving many wondering how the ongoing climate crisis can be tackled in a quicker and more efficient global way, the need to find impactful solutions despite the lack of significant change envisioned is more pressing than ever. Are there ways to tackle the changing climate, not only by cutting down emissions but with adapted solutions? This is where REGILIENCE comes in with consequential solutions rooted in adaptive tools for climate resilient regions.

Innovative financing schemes for local and regional sustainability plans: PROSPECT+ call for mentors and mentees

PROSPECT+ follows the footsteps of the H2020-funded project PROSPECT and continues to help regional and local authorities in Europe to finance and implement their sustainable energy action plans with innovative financing schemes.  Local and regional authorities from 44 eligible countries can now apply to participate in the 1st Capacity-building programme, either as a mentor from 29 November to 17 December, or a mentee from 10 to 28 January. The project will form communities of practice to exchange knowledge on five areas where cities have a lot of potential to make major cuts in emissions, while making savings in the local budget: public and private buildings, public lighting, transport and cross sectoral. The application process is simple, participation is free.

ENSMOV newsletter - implementation of policies under Article 7 EED

If you missed out on the latest ENSMOV developments, now is the time to catch up and keep yourself updated on Article 7 of the EED: read about the report “a new toolkit on Monitoring, Reporting & Verification”, watch an interview from Stefan Bouzarovski on energy poverty, and more!

The European project MICAT aims to develop a user-friendly online tool calculating diverse benefits of energy efficiency measures

Have you ever thought that energy efficiency measures can bring about a high number of benefits aside for monetary savings? Did you know that emissions reduction, improved health, better air quality, and new employment opportunities can be a direct result of energy efficiency measures? However, how can one assess and monitor these impacts on local, national, and European level? And how can the collected data be used on multiple benefits of energy efficiency to bring different policy angles into play and develop more comprehensive and integrated sustainability strategies? The H2020 project MICAT aims to develop a comprehensive approach to estimate Multiple Impacts of Energy Efficiency (MI-EE) by co-creating a free, easy-to-use, scientifically sound online tool (MICATool). The tool will enable policymakers and practitioners to conduct simplified analyses for different data and policy scenarios, to compare and assess the relevance of the multiple impacts, and strengthen reporting and monitoring at the local, national, and European level. The initial predevelopment phase is already taking place as 3 European municipalities have been selected for pilotage. Vitoria Gasteiz (Basque Country), Calvià (Spain) and Tartu (Estonia) were selected as “MICATool Pilot Cities” to help co-develop and test a new online tool that estimates the multiple benefits of energy efficiency.

Co-creation workshops – evaluating and designing nudges and defining energy consumer profiles

Co-creation workshops allowed evaluating the respective nudges that will be implemented in the energy monitoring applications of each H2020-funded project NUDGE pilot, in terms of user acceptance, comprehensibility and ease-of-use.

BECoop - business modelling for energy communities

2 months ago, H2020 BECoop presented at the Sustainable places event, on energy communities business models. Now that the recording, paper and key findings are available, we've gathered all in a short article! And while waiting for the project newsletter coming soon, you can catch up on the latest pilot developments.

Support Triple-A by filling the project questionnaire for the categorization of energy efficiency risk mitigation strategies, financing instruments and financial schemes.

This questionnaire aims at categorising identified financing instruments, financial models/schemes, and risk mitigation strategies for different EU Member States based on their applicability and importance. For more information on the identified financing instruments, financial models/schemes, and risk mitigation strategies, please visit the Triple-A Web-Based Database.

Want to keep up on recent information tackling energy poverty? Here is a list of articles and publications from H2020 ENPOR: 

• Read about the city of Ghent’s concrete measures for tackling energy poverty and supporting vulnerable households through counselling on renovations and subsidies. A unique local approach: Empowering vulnerable families in their energy-efficiency refurbishment - ENPOR's contribution to COP26 • ENPOR

• An article about France’s current rise in energy prices and how to protect vulnerable households. Learn more about the measures implemented to tackle energy poverty during a high peak in energy prices as well as potential solutions including market regulation, the importance of a local approach and how to guide vulnerable households during the renovation periods: Blog - How to tackle energy poverty whilst dealing with a historical rise in energy prices in France • ENPOR

• Discover good practices from 10 European countries on alleviating energy poverty, in 10 country factsheets and a European one identifying policies and measures that actively tackled energy poverty across Europe following 4 themes: Governance, Indicators, Main national measures and good practices: Tackling energy poverty : learning from experience in 10 European countries | IEECP

• For more good practices, you can check out ENPOR’s Energy Poverty Dashboard which was recently launched to collect national policies on mitigating energy poverty in the private rented sector : Energy Poverty Dashboard

EVENTS

Final conference ICCEE –Increasing cold chain energy efficiency in the European food and beverage sector, NEW DATE: April 6-8, 2022

ICCEE methodology - led by a group of industry, energy and IT experts -has developed a series of interrelated activities, which include a tailor-made tool for cold supply chains, and training courses to increase the supply chain energy efficiency in the food and beverage sector and implement real energy efficiency measures and investments. Discover the methodology, tools, capacity building and practical experiences in food and beverage cold supply chains gained, by attending the ICCEE final event and obtain the free toolbox for replication in your projects. The project final conference will be organised during the World Sustainable Energy Days, in Wels, Austria.