Skills through the multi-annual financial framework: building renovation in the Mediterranean area
A trained workforce and skilled public administration will be essential to support the drive to a highly energy efficient building stock, in line with EU climate neutrality goals. This 90-minute online conversation, that we co-organised with Energy Cities (representing the Interreg MED Efficient Buildings Community) and EFBWW, informs EU, national and regional stakeholders on how to maximise current opportunities to increase the availability of a qualified workforce for energy renovations, particularly for public buildings.
It looks at the importance of skills and training as a pre-requisite for rolling out successful renovation schemes on the ground. We explore how to make the most of the Multi-Annual Financial Framework 2021-2027 for upskilling workers as well as local stakeholders and administration with the aim of boosting the rate and depth of energy renovation, particularly in the Mediterranean area (Croatia, France, Greece, Italy, Slovenia and Spain).
Agenda
Welcome – Miriam Eisermann, Energy Cities
Panel 1: EU-level perspectives and opportunities on skills and training for energy renovation
- Introduction: Why workforce upskilling is so important to deliver renovation schemes – Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign
- Opportunities to boost skills in energy renovation through the Multi-Annual Financial Framework and Just Transition Fund (JTF) – Maeva Roulette, DG EMPL
- Needs, challenges and opportunities for upskilling the construction workforce on energy renovation – Rolf Gehring, EFBWW
- Insights from CINEA – Luca Angelino, CINEA
- Q&A moderated by Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign
Panel II: Upskilling of local stakeholders and administration for better buildings
- Introduction – Miriam Eisermann, Energy Cities
- Strengthening planning and management skills of public building owners
- Belinda Gottardi, Mayor of Castello Maggiore (Italy)
- Evangelos Evangelides, Mayor of Aradippou (Cyprus)
- Helder Gonçalves, Director of Portuguese National Energy Laboratory LNGE and national coordinator of BUILD UP Skills FORESEE
- Q&A moderated by Peter Schilken, Energy Cities
Wrap-up – Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign
End
How to unlock the Renovation Wave?
The Renovate Europe Campaign and Positive Money Europe co-organised the webinar “How to unlock the Renovation Wave” on the occasion of the launch of the Unlock campaign. The event took place online on Wednesday, May 11th from 11am to 12.15am CEST.
The current recast of the Energy Performance of Buildings directive (EPBD) proposes comprehensive measures to accelerate energy efficient renovation of residential buildings. However, financing the Renovation Wave remains a complex challenge. The Commission expects a funding gap of around € 275 billion per year by 2030. Public funding for renovation purposes is often too slow to deploy, too bureaucratic, and not scalable enough due to the magnitude of the challenge.
ECB research estimates that around € 214 billion/year of the needed additional funding should be covered by bank loans. The text reviewed by the Commission rightly emphasised the role of energy efficiency loans and mortgages in the Renovation Wave by introducing the concept of Mortgage Portfolio Standard. However, banks lack incentives to offer cheap lending products.
What role can the banking sector play in the Renovation Wave? How can the European Central Bank unlock affordable green loans and green mortgages? Our experts answered these questions during the online webinar.
– Adrian Joyce (Renovate Europe) will present on the current state of play of the renovation challenge;
– Peter Sweatman (Climate Strategy) will introduce the EU renovation loan;
– Uuriintuya Batsaikhan (Positive Money Europe) will show how the ECB can finance home renovations through its refinancing operations and TLTROs programme.
A discussion with Member of the EU Parliament Sean Kelly, EU Commission’s Karlis Goldstein, and Jennifer Johnson from the European Mortgage Federation followed with a dedicated space for questions.
The event closed with Vicky Van Eyck (Positive Money Europe) introducing the Unlock campaign.
One-Stop-Shops: Maximising their potential to accelerate energy renovation
21th March 2022 (11:30-12:50 CET)
The Renovate Europe Campaign hosted the webinar “One-Stop-Shops: Maximising their potential to accelerate energy renovation” on Monday 21 March 2022 (11:30-12:50 CET) via GoToWebinar.
In a context of rising energy prices and a spiralling climate crisis, reducing the energy demand of Europe’s leaky buildings is a priority. Technical assistance provided by One-Stop-Shops (OSS) has long been advocated as part of the solution to accelerating building energy renovation in the EU. Maximising their potential will be crucial if we are to boost the deep renovation of the EU building stock in order to increase our energy security and cut households’ energy bills.
One-stop-shops also have an important role to play in supporting the introduction of Minimum Energy Performance Standards (MEPS) in the Buildings Directive (EPBD) and in driving the take-up of renovation measures implemented through the National Recovery and Resilience Plans, Cohesion and other EU funding as well as public programmes.
In this webinar, the Hungarian, Irish, Latvian and Polish National Partners of the Renovate Europe Campaign together with a representative from the City of Warsaw presented their experience with one-stop-shops in their country. At the same time, Adrien Bullier from the Commission’s CINEA provided insight into why and how we need to upscale OSS with the aim of boosting the rate and depth of energy renovation in the EU.
Agenda
11:30 | Introduction and Moderation
Julie Kjestrup, Vice-Chair of the Renovate Europe Campaign
11:40 | Towards large-scale roll out of “integrated home renovation services” in Europe
Adrien Bullier, Senior Project Adviser, European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA)
11:50 | Learnings from the RenoPont Energy Home Renovation Centres in Budapest
Zsuzsanna Koritár, Hungarian Energy Efficiency Institute (MEHI) (REC National Partner in Hungary)
12:00 | EUROPA Network: the establishment of the Latvian One-Stop-Shop
Eloise Stancioff, Ekubirojs (REC National Partner in Latvia)
12:10 | The Irish One-Stop-Shop experience through the Solutions4Renovation platform
Johanna Varghese, Irish Green Building Council (REC National Partner in Ireland)
12:20 | Challenges to boosting the renovation of single and multi-family homes in Poland: the role of One-Stop-Shops
– Justyna Glusman, Fala Renowacji (REC National Partner in Poland)
– Jacek Kisiel (Deputy Director, Air Protection and Climate Policy Department, City of Warsaw)
12:30 | Q&A with speakers
12:45 | Wrap-up
12:50 | End of the webinar
Mortgage Portfolio Standards, an innovative approach to decarbonise buildings

14th October 2021 (15:00-16:30 CEST)
The Renovate Europe Campaign hosted the Climate & Strategy Partners webinar “Mortgage Portfolio Standards, an innovative approach to decarbonise buildings”, during which high-level speakers talked and discussed the released Climate Strategy & Partners report “Underwriting the Renovation Wave with Mortgage Portfolio Standards for Energy Efficiency” (read the report here).
Speakers included:
- Adrian Joyce, Campaign Director, Renovate Europe Campaign
- Peter Sweatman, Founder and CEO, Climate Strategy & Partners
- Paula Rey García, Deputy Head of Unit, DG ENER Buildings and Products
- Sonja van Renssen, Editor-in-Chief, Energy Monitor
- Sandra Schoonhoven, Head Sustainability Programmes, ING Global
- Murray Birt, Steering Committee member of EFFIG and Senior ESG Strategist at DWS Group
- Emelia Holdaway, Head of Policy at IIGC
- Ciarán Cuffe, Member of the European Parliament, Group of the Greens / European Free Alliance
Adrian Joyce’s Opening Speech
Full Webinar
How to get the best out of the Renovation Wave

12th October 2021 (11:30-13:00 CEST)
In the context of the EU Regions Week on 12th of October 2021, Renovate Europe co-organised together with DG GROW, the JRC and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development the workshop “How to get the best out of the Renovation Wave”. Policymakers from different levels of governance looked at some of the solutions at hand to improve the implementation of the Renovation Wave: financing instruments to accelerate renovation, technical assistance for practical support, affordability considerations to ensure no one is left behind, and innovative techniques which effectively integrate energy efficiency with climate resilience.
Moderator: Georgios Tsionis, Project officer – scientific research, European Commission – Joint Research Centre, Italy
Speakers:
- Enrico Rossi, Member of the European Committee of the Regions
- Gaspard Demur, Team Leader – National renovation strategies and recovery; international cooperation on buildings policy, DG ENER, European Commission
- Stefania Racolta-Cruceru, Associate Director, Head of EU Green Finance and Climate Analytics, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development
- Michaela Kauer, Head of the Brussels Office, City of Vienna, Austria
Video Testimonials
- Valentina Superti, Director, European Commission – Directorate-General for Internal Market, Industry, Enterpreneurship and SME’s, Belgium
- Adrian Joyce, Secretary General, Renovate Europe, Belgium
- Hubert Briand, Manager Energy Efficiency of Buildings, Investment Direction, Banque des Territoires, France
Full Workshop
Why and How is Technical Assistance the Wealth-enabler for buildings?
Renovate Europe co-organised the webinar “Why and How is Technical Assistance the Wealth-enabler for buildings?”, which took place on Tuesday 28 September 2021 (10:30-11:50 CET) via GoToWebinar.
Historic amounts of funding will be made available through the EU budget (RRF and MFF), and the main buildings-related legislation (EED and EPBD) will be strengthened to deliver on the Renovation Wave goals. Unfortunately, the crucial role of Technical Assistance in delivering renovation schemes is still vastly underestimated.
Technical assistance or capacity building will be crucial in transforming EU objectives into tangible renovation schemes on the ground, and could significantly improve the absorption rates of EU funding across the Member States. It will also be essential in ensuring that renovations schemes are made accessible for the vulnerable.
This webinar, co-organised by Renovate Europe, FEDARENE and Energy Cities, was the opportunity to better understand the importance of technical assistance, through learnings from ongoing programmes but also through examples of funding opportunities, so renovation schemes can deliver better results for citizens, businesses, and the environment.
Agenda
10:30 | Opening remarks: Why technical support is key in driving energy renovations
Adrian Joyce, Renovate Europe Campaign Director (moderator)
10:35 | Learnings from the MFF: How and why to prioritise Technical Assistance in rolling out renovation schemes:
Mathieu Fichter, DG REGIO
10:45 | Applying for EU Technical Support to implement the Renovation Wave
– Technical Support from DG REFORM: Kaspar Richter, DG REFORM
– European City Facility: Stimulating local investments in the energy transition: Mariangela Luceri, FEDARENE
11:05 | Q&A session
11:15 | Making Technical Assistance available at National, Regional and Local level
– Intervention by Peter Schilken, Energy Cities
– The contribution of the French Caisse des Dépôts Climate Plan for a Green Recovery and the importance of local technical assistance for building renovation: Caroline François-Marsal, Caisse des Dépôts Group
– The key role of Technical Assistance in the context of the EPBD revision: Jessica Glicker, BPIE
11:35 | Q&A session
11:45 | Wrap-up by Moderator
* A short video showcasing best practices will be shown during the webinar.