Very few policies consider the tenant-landlord dilemma, or even brought together tenants and landlords to discuss and address both of these groups’ needs. Difficulties with access to funding and information remain an urgent issue for both tenants and landlords especially in the current energy crisis. 

Energy efficiency measures are the most important long-term measures to alleviate energy poverty and to improve living conditions in the PRS, however they are increasingly more expensive and need longer times due to lack of material and skilled workforce. 

In the recent two years ENPOR partners scanned the current policy and action landscape in Europe and developed and implemented a consequent and carefully targeted stakeholder consultation process to develop policy recommendations on short-term, mid-term and long-term actions to mitigate energy poverty on the private rented sector. The following details result from our policy research and also stem directly from local and national stakeholders in Austria, Greece, The Netherlands, Germany, Estonia, Croatia and Italy. 

Within the framework of the ENPOR project, new formats were created to support energy poor households in Austria in a more targeted manner.

ENPOR’s team organized a session on 22 June 2022: “Energy poverty in the European private rented sector: Findings from the ENPOR project” with five presentations:

A new global energy crisis, rising energy prices and steepening rates of energy poverty have brought an urgent demand for new solutions as well as a new dynamic in their implementation. Municipalities are increasingly being faced with the need to rethink their strategies with regard to energy generally and especially in terms of their policies on energy poverty. This workshop, brought to the Climate Alliance International Conference (CAIC’22) by the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – Europe, will provide some EU-level insight into the challenges and foster a dialogue among participating municipal representatives on possible solutions.

The H2020 project EmpowerMed is implementing practical solutions that empower people affected by energy poverty to manage their energy consumption or bills and improve their access to appropriate energy resources. These actions can be classified into the following categories: community approaches, household visits, Do-it-Yourself (DIY) solutions, health workshops and support on small investments. This article gives some insights into the actions and their success stories.

With the publication of the two batches of the ‘Fit for 55’ Climate Package, one of the key steps in delivering the European Green Deal, the Commission launched a set of revisions and recasts of energy and climate laws aimed at reaching the EU’s 2030 goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions at least by 55% compared to 1990 levels, and putting it on track to hit net zero by 2050. However, it seems clear that these new targets cannot be the only driving force towards a more sustainable society. In fact, social inclusion considerations also need to guide the EU action. As Executive Vice-President for the European Green Deal, Frans Timmermans underlined that the Fit for 55’ Package needs to “spur the necessary changes, enable all citizens to experience the benefits of climate action as soon as possible, and provide support to the most vulnerable households”.  

How is the objective of social inclusion translated into practice?

How does the energy poverty matter fit into this purpose?

Emil Martini (UIPI) analyses how energy poverty is dealt with in the recast proposals of the two main directives which were already dealing with this issue, namely the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED):

We might be surprised of how energy poverty indicators have started to carve out a significant role in statistics only in very recent years, although their strategic importance emerges for the comprehension of the economic and social conditions of a given territory.

Habitat for Humanity International Europe and the Middle East Area Office (HFHI EME) is launching Residential Energy Efficiency Observatory in Central and Eastern Europe and its first publication: "Addressing energy poverty through residential energy efficiency in Central and Eastern Europe: Challenges and best practices" is the first collection of articles.

This is a must-read for municipalities interested in understanding different approaches that can be useful for obtaining a general picture of energy poverty in their local context as well as the initial introduction to the methodology to tackle energy poverty.

ENPOR increases the capacity of the decision makers for understanding and mitigating its effects by designing and implementing ten policies. To bundle findings and outcomes of projects dealing with energy vulnerability and to support policies related to fair energy transition we seek to publish related interesting news and articles. We welcome articles and news from other projects and inititiatives, as well as by researchers or policy initiatives interested in distributing their results  in an easy-to-understand language.

This Newsletter reflects only the author’s view and CINEA is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains. ENPOR has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 889385.