[EEA09] Tackling energy poverty in the context of the Energy Efficiency Directive

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Date & Time

June 5, 2024; 10h00 - 11h30 CEST

Speakers

• Veronika Jiříčková, Energy Efficiency Policy Officer (European Commission)
• Samuele Livraghi, Junior Expert (IEECP)
• Solenne Toum, Project Manager ClubC2E (ATEE)
• Stefan Bouzarovski, Professor of Human Geography (University of Manchester)
• Marta García París, CoDirector (Ecoserveis Association)

Description

The new Energy Efficiency Directive has strengthened its provisions on energy poverty in the context of an energy crisis. This underscores the significant role of energy efficiency measures in addressing energy poverty. This webinar will share experiences in this field, specifically examining how policies are designed to reach priority groups.

The speakers will provide an overview of measures already implemented by Member States, focusing specifically on those reported for their energy savings obligations. The cases of the private rented sector and rural energy poverty will be discussed to illustrate the need to tailor measures to specific situations.

Recording

Highlights

• The new Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) has strengthened considerably the provisions on energy poverty, setting a definition and clear requirements. These go hand in hand with the provisions in the new Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and the Social Climate Plans due by Member States in June 2025.
• The EU policy framework previously encouraged Member States to use energy efficiency measures to tackle energy poverty and mitigate adverse effects of energy transition policies. The updated policy framework now requires Member States to do so.
• Many Member States have already implemented energy efficiency measures with the objective to alleviate energy poverty, either as main objective, or as part of broader objectives. 20 Member States notified such measures to Article 7 EED in their 2023 National Energy and Climate Progress Report.
• The MURE database provides information on more than 80 of such on-going measures. The ENSMOV Plus project analysed more in details a series of examples (France, Ireland and Slovenia already available; Greece, the Netherlands and Wallonia to be published soon).
• In most cases, the priority groups are defined according to existing criteria (mostly related to income level or eligibility to social benefits). This is increasingly complemented with eligibility criteria related to the dwelling (e.g. energy class, evidence of inappropriate housing conditions).
• Beyond these general criteria, more specific criteria or barriers should be considered to leave no one behind, as investigated about the private rented sector in the ENPOR project, or about rural energy poverty in the RENOVERTY project. This advocates for people-focused or experience-focused policies.
• Experience shows the complementarity of large schemes able to support quickly a large number of households and more specific schemes that can provide tailored support to the most in need, including to the ones who might be under the radars.
• The French white certificates scheme is a good example that can drive large number of standardized actions, and at the same time provide funding to accompanying programmes that can develop local partnerships and tailored support.
• As energy poverty is a complex phenomenon, tackling it requires cooperation in all senses: between jurisdiction levels (national and local), between social and energy policies, and among various types of stakeholders (public authorities, NGOs, energy companies, …). Barcelona was highlighted as a good example of such cooperation.

Further Reading

• The new Energy Efficiency Directive (recast): Directive (EU) 2023/1791
• The Commission's Recommendation on Member States' energy savings obligation (Articles 8-9-10 of the EED) (including guidance on Article 8(3) about the energy poverty ringfence) 
• About networks of experts, you may be interested in the proceedings of this SocialWatt webinar about the experience of the Belgian, French and Italian observatories on energy poverty
• The MURE database
• Previous ODYSSEE-MURE policy brief on Measuring and monitoring energy poverty in the EU - examples of good practices
• From the ENSMOV Plus platform:
  • New examples on energy poverty
  • More presentations about experiences with energy efficiency measures tackling energy poverty in the proceedings of the Paris workshop (experiences from UK and Ireland)
  • Experiences from Greece and Slovenia, presented at the Budapest workshop 
• ENPOR Project (Alleviating energy poverty in the private rented sector)
• RENOVERTY Project (Home renovation roadmaps to address energy poverty in vulnerable rural districts)
• REVERTER Project (Deep renovation roadmaps to decrease households Vulnerability to energy poverty)
• Equity - Energy Demand Research Centre (edrc.ac.uk)
• Governmental Programmes for Socially Just Energy Transition in the Housing Sector (EnR Newsletter)

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