The European Commission’s DG Energy published a study on Thursday 12 January which examines how low-cost energy efficiency measures can help low-income households facing energy poverty and which reviews financing schemes providing such measures.
These low-cost measures include increasing the use of energy and water saving devices, better insulating buildings and providing advice on how to be more energy efficient. They will not replace more costly measures to improve energy efficiency, such as major renovation of buildings, but even on their own they can bring results, the Commission stresses.
The study reviews 24 schemes in various countries which help people on low incomes to use low-cost energy efficiency measures. It analyses the factors that make schemes effective and recommends a number of good practices.
It concludes that schemes work better when they work with local social and health services whose support for low-income households is crucial in getting the message across that being more energy efficient can bring benefits in practice. It also underlines the broader advantages of these schemes, such as the opportunities they provide for unemployed people to learn new skills.
In addition, the study contains information on EU funds that support the promotion of energy efficiency measures – the European rural development fund (ERDF), cohesion funds, the European social fund and the EU’s funding programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020.
The study is available at: https://goo.gl/l3mLO7 (Original version in French by Emmanuel Hagry)