With the theme Joining Hands to Drive the Green Transition Forward, the 2024 European Climate Initiative (EUKI) Networking Conference, held in Berlin on 14 and 15 May, sought to facilitate and inspire exchange of ideas, knowledge and foster collaboration by bringing together climate action professionals from across Europe, and from various fields. The conference included a series of lectures as well as interactive workshops, which emphasised the crucial role of community engagement, innovative solutions, and robust policy frameworks in driving the transition to a sustainable, climate-neutral future.

Improving the energy performance of buildings play an important role towards the green transition, and in reaching EU’s climate and energy targets. This requires not only an increase in renovation rates, but also in measures to ensure that renovations do achieve energy savings and carbon emissions reduction and not result in missed targets, opportunities and benefits.

The performance gap between predicted and measured energy savings, a frequent issue occurring in the renovation sector due to a variety of causes, can be tackled through the newly introduced policy instrument Building Renovation Passports (BRP). This was the subject of workshop discussion: Enabling the Renovation Wave - Renovation Passports and the Performance Gap, at the EUKI conference, held by Renocally and OUR-CEE projects, both supported by EUKI. Participants discussed the challenges and opportunities for local authorities when it comes to implementing BRPs and recommended that priority be given to developing the capacity of local staff and securing sufficient financial support.

OUR-CEE, a project led by EPG in a consortium formed by Center for Energy Efficiency EnEffect, Regional Energy Agency North (REA Sjever) and Association of Municipallities Polish Network „Energie Cités”, aims to identify the reasons behind underperforming renovations of public buildings and build capacity in relevant public institutions. It will also pilot renovation roadmaps, including financing plans, for several public buildings in the project countries, and promote knowledge exchange.

Find out more details about hashtag#OURCEE on the project’s website: https://our-cee.eu/