Recent studies indicate that in the EU, energy consumption in buildings represents 40% of the total energy consumption. Thermal renovation rates of Europe’s 200 million houses currently stand at under 0.3%, and urgent action is needed if Europe is to reach its 2020 energy targets. Grant schemes and other policy measures aimed at improving energy efficiency the domestic sector have a very slow rate of implementation. Furthermore, existing schemes are rarely utilised by low income households which represent about 40% of Europe’s housing stock. There is therefore a genuine need for innovative policies aimed specifically at the low income sector.
Previous projects working on this theme have created a consensus that energy retrofitting of low income housing needs specific and innovative approaches. But mostly conducted in the north of Europe and the new Member States, these projects have been relying on strong financial public support coming from the States, local communities or European funds. They have also in most cases been implemented by social houses operators which are traditionally very powerful institutions in the north of Europe and have sufficient resources and experiences to conduct such projects. Owners occupiers are more rarely targeted by these programs. And very few projects have dealt with energy poverty. Although some of these works have involved Med countries (in particular Italy or Greece), no project has so far been focused of the question of energy efficiency in low income housings in the Mediterranean area dealing with specific climatic, physical, behavioural and social characteristics and in a context of growing and durable financial constraints on public funds due to the financial crisis.
Key objectives
- to develop innovative public and private financing mechanisms backed with Structural Funds to foster energy efficiency investment in low income housing. The project aims to develop a coordinated European financial instrument as part of the Mediterranean macro-regional strategy 2014-2020.
- to conduct a large scale pilot to improve the energy efficiency in low-income housing.
- the Maltese component includes a budget of €250,000 for retrofitting 35 low income houses in Malta and Gozo. The dwellings must have been constructed before 1995 (or thereabouts) and may be any combination of government or private housing, although the latter is preferred.
Low cost energy efficient investments (hot water, lighting systems and appliances) will be analysed and tested at the same time as more structural solutions such as building insulation, shading, draughtproofing, heating and cooling systems, etc.
