Photo credit: Mihai Moia
This programme was designed with the specific objective of reducing GHG emissions in the buildings sector in Romania and to do it by reducing energy consumption in buildings occupied by low-income households in the various regions of Romania.
This programme was a joint undertaking of the United Nations Development Programme and the Romanian Ministry of Regional development. It was funded by a grant worth around €2.75m and the evaluation of the project reports that this leveraged investments in the order of €447m in energy renovation of low-income housing. The project was set up in such a way that beneficiaries only had to co-finance about 3.5% of the cost of their renovation works.
In addition to improving the energy performance of a large number of homes and public buildings, the project had a further objective to raise the understanding and knowledge of the building professionals in Romania on the need to consider the energy performance of the building stock in their work and to increase the shill sets of these professionals. The evaluation reports that this was also successfully achieved with more than 800 professionals reported as having improved skills at the end of the project.
Another notable output of the project was the development of (standardised) project documentation for the renovation of 50 different apartment types in Romania. The existent of this documentation made the job of preparing tenders for the various projects much easier for the administrations in the various regions of Romania
Principle Characteristics of the Incentive Programme:
| Type of Programme: | Grant-aiding programme aimed at alleviating energy poverty |
| Year of initiation: | 2010 |
| Number of buildings: | 114 buildings in total, ranging from multi-family blocks to public buildings and some individual households |
| Measures implemented: | Insulation of roofs and walls, replacement of windows and doors, installation of renewable energy sources and replacement of heating systems |
| Results: | Energy savings of 7,351 MW – Reduced CO2 emissions by around 4.4 Mt per year |
| Energy performance: | Depending on the building type, savings in the range 47 to 52% were achieved |
| Cost of the works: | The funding leveraged €447m in total investments |
| Technical consultants: | UNDP |
UNDP evaluation of the programme: https://erc.undp.org/evaluation/documents/download/9569