The WSED 2018 conference (28 February – 2 March in Wels, Austria) included an Energy Efficiency Policy Workshop that presented successful examples for the energy transition on regional and local levels. Frank Mischler, Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and coordinator of EmBuild, looked at the main incentives for mayors and public officers to promote projects of energy efficiency. There is more public attention and buy-in if not only the energy saving aspect of such renovation projects is presented but also other benefits, for instance people get less sick as they benefit from better indoor climate, pupils learn better in retrofitted schools, local economy gets a boost for being involved in renovation projects etc. In some cases, these wider benefits become the main driver – while energy efficiency becomes the by-product.
The event was organized by the PUBLENEF project, a Horizon2020 project assisting EU countries in implementing effective and efficient sustainable energy policies. Next to the coordinator of PUBLENEF, Vlasis Oikonomou (Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy), the policy workshop included as speakers Christine Öhlinger (OÖ Energiesparverband, Austria), Marie-Laure Falque Masset (IAU Energy department ARENE, France), Ion Dogeanu (Energy Agency Bucarest, Romania) and Jose Ramón López (EVE, Spain).
A review of the 2018 edition of WSED can be found here: http://www.wsed.at/fileadmin/redakteure/wsed/2018/WSED18-Review-fin.pdf