On 20 June at 14.30 DG Energy and the Climate Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) are organising the session Decarbonising the EU’s building stock: addressing the skills gap? at the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW). 

In the context of the European Year of Skills, the session will take stock of ongoing efforts to ensure a sufficient workforce with relevant skillsets for building decarbonisation and ambitious renovation interventions. How can we mobilise actors on the ground to achieve mass-scale deployment of training? 

It will feature speakers from the European Commission DG Energy, DG Employment, DG Internal Market, the European Heating Industry, the European Builders Confederation, the Energy Agency of Upper Austria and the Dutch Knowledge Centre for the building and building services sector.

Delivering on the 2050 climate neutrality ambition means massive renovation of the building stock, as carbon emissions from buildings need to go down by 60% by 2030. 

With the accelerated pace of the energy transition, the lack of a sufficient workforce with relevant skillsets, including on digitalisation, hybridisation and system optimisation, is becoming a  bottleneck despite  ongoing efforts. The Renovation Wave calls for a boost in the know-how and workers’ skills and pledges that the Commission will work with Member States on training and re-training, in view of at least doubling the current rate of energy renovations.

The Commission estimates that 3 to 4 million construction workers in the EU need to develop energy efficiency related skills; recent industry estimates point to a need for additional 750,000 installers in 2030 and for reskilling at least 50% of existing installers, in order to deliver on the REPowerEU Plan objective of doubling deployment rates of building heat pumps. 

The same day at 16:30 the session Innovative approaches to upskilling the building workforce: towards a carbon neutral building stock will present successful approaches tested within the EU BUILD UP Skills initiative and discuss how these could be scaled up at national level.

You can join us online or onsite. Do not forget to register.

EUSEW2023 is the biggest European event dedicated to the clean energy transition.