GROWING ENERGY EFFICIENCY THROUGH NATIONAL ROUNDTABLES ADDRESSES

Project Information

GREENROAD

Grant agreement ID: 101033844

DOI

10.3030/101033844

Project closed

EC signature date 10 May 2021

Start date 1 September 2021

End date 29 February 2024

Funded under

• SOCIETAL CHALLENGES - Secure, clean and efficient energy

Total cost

€ 1 186 126,25

EU contribution

€ 1 186 126,25

Coordinated by

AGENZIA NAZIONALE PER LE NUOVE TECNOLOGIE, L'ENERGIA E LO SVILUPPO ECONOMICO SOSTENIBILE
Italy

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - GREENROAD (GROWING ENERGY EFFICIENCY THROUGH NATIONAL ROUNDTABLES ADDRESSES)

Reporting period: 2022-12-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Energy efficiency plays a key role in the process of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. Achieving these reductions in the next decade is crucial to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050 according to the European Green Deal.
The European “Renovation Wave” strategy highlights how energy renovation of buildings is essential to reach this target, reducing consumptions and replacing fossil energy sources with renewable ones. Currently 75% of the European building stock is energy inefficient and the current renovation rate (between 0.4% and 1.2%) is not sufficient to achieve the decarbonisation targets set for the 2050. To overcome this situation, the Italian strategy foresees that in the next 30 years 2/3 of the existing buildings must be renovated. This means that the current restructuring rate will have to double (from 0.85% to 2%) in 2020-2030 and triple in 2030-2050 period. To support this process, it is essential to put in place adequate financial instruments that encourage and allow the realization of the necessary investments in energy efficiency to reach the renovation target.

GREENROAD aims at facilitating the mobilization of investments for the energy retrofitting of Italian building sector, through the creation of national roundtables and connected events at local level where public and private, national and local stakeholders can discuss and identify the most suitable solutions to meet market needs and overcome current barriers.

GREENROAD objectives are:
‒ Set up permanent national roundtables and territorial focus groups to facilitate the dialogue among stakeholders as well as decision-makers to promote changes starting from the real needs of the market.
‒ Create opportunities to jointly identify the most effective measures and the best practices for energy efficiency in buildings accelerating their implementation and replication.
‒ Scale-up of energy efficiency projects through capacity building actions.
‒ Strengthen the dialogue among stakeholders to fuel policy-making and policy-learning processes.
‒ Formulate proposals concerning the national policy framework as well as financial instruments to help overcoming the identified barriers to energy efficiency investments.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

From September 2021 to the end of November 2022, GREENROAD has set up two national roundtables:
1. National Roundtable “Instruments & Best Practices Roundtable”: it foresees the participation of the main national players in the energy efficiency field and in financing energy renovation interventions, such as: banks, financial institutions, business and professionals associations, representatives of the academic world.
2. National Roundtable “Policies & Recommendations Roundtable”: it foresees the participation of the main institutional stakeholders, representatives of ministries and authorities who deal with energy efficiency in the building sector, as well as representatives of national and international trade associations.

Three meetings of these roundtables have been held during this period and the proceedings of each roundtable are published on the GREENROAD website.
In between the thematic national roundtables, local events have been organized in order to create a strong connection between project activities carried out at national level and actions implemented at regional/local level, creating an efficient blending between the top-down and the bottom-up approach. These events involve local stakeholders with different origins and interests (industry, academia, consumer associations, local authorities, financial sector, ESCOs, construction sector, etc.), in order to get a wide feedback.

In order to involve them in a transparent and cooperative way, during the first months of 2022 a specific call for local stakeholders has been published on the GREENROAD project website. The call will remain open until the end of the project to allow new stakeholders to participate to GREENROAD events.

So far 2 local events have been organised:
- One event in Rome focusing on green finance and green bonds, as tools for energy efficiency interventions on buildings and for territorial development
- A second event in Milan focusing on “One stop shops”, as opportunities for energy efficiency interventions on the territory.
The proceedings of these events are available on GREENROAD website.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The project was able to gather a large number of stakeholders, all involved in the energy efficiency for building sector (including financial institutions), and set up 2 national roundtables (who met 3 times) and 2 local events. Roundtables’ participants have been able to easily interact and discuss in an open way on the main issues they are currently facing regarding the financial instruments available in the Italian market for energy efficiency building renovation, express their concerns, showcase and discuss the best practices and propose solutions to current barriers.

GREENROAD activities will aim to further strengthen and consolidate the roundtables that have been very valuable in facilitating and speeding up the confrontation between the many stakeholders involved in the energy efficiency sector and with the institutions. The final objective is to create a permanent forum.
Moreover, the events held in 2022 have been very important to identify the main areas of interest on which the project partnership will continue focusing the discussion and prepare the ground for a more in depth analysis. Thanks to this work, during the future roundtables and local events it will be possible to delve deeper into the macro areas identified, in order be able to define all the components needed to draft technical proposals that could be brought to the attention of policy makers.

GREENROAD logo