Reducing energy demand is the sustainable answer to protect citizens against rising energy prices. To deliver on massive energy renovation programmes required to secure such energy-saving gains we need a much greater focus on workforce upskilling.
Moderated by Adrian Joyce, Director of the Renovate Europe Campaign, the session focused on the needs of today’s workforce in terms of building renovations and highlighted funding opportunities in the multiannual financial framework (MFF) for 2021-2027 to help regions and cities step up to the challenge.
Luis Galiano Bastarrica, Policy Assistant for Climate and Energy Policies at DG REGIO G.1 “Smart and Sustainable Growth”, was the first speaker to take the floor to talk about the REPowerEU plan and to highlight that "programmes need to be aligned with EU medium (2030) and long term (2050) energy and climate objectives".
The next one was Rolf Gehring, Political Secretary of the European Federation of Building and Woodworkers, who talked of the Energy Renovation Wave as "a multifaceted problem", as there are many factors to take into account:
Also, Gehring argued that the Energy Renovation Wave is based on three main aspects:
Last but not least, the intervention of Vilislava Ivanova, Senior Researcher at E3G, revolved around the question "What is the situation of skills training for renovation at national level and what best practice examples exist that could be scaled up or replicated?". Ivanova talked about key skills related to challenges in renovation sector, examples of existing scalable practices, steps to address challenges and opportunities for EU funding, among other topics.
