CITYnvest

On 12 May, local governments and stakeholders (energy service companies, energy agencies, financial institutions…) in the energy services sector came together in Budapest to discuss financing solutions for the renovation of the building stock in Hungary. The goal of the CITYnvest workshop was to increase the capacities of towns and regions to launch renovation programmes and attract adequate financing.

Prioritising energy efficiency is often promoted by EU policy makers, but at the end of the day, investments in energy efficiency need to happen locally. As Dan Staniaszek from the Buildings Performance Institute of Europe told the participants: “You are the ones that mobilise local stakeholders, you engage with the building owners and citizens, and all of you are potential real project champions!”

“Building owners need guarantees on safety, health and affordability”, stated Nicholas Stancioff from the Sunshine project. Since many of the residential buildings in Hungary are multi-family blocks, with low or no energy performance standards, the similarity with the buildings tackled in the Sunshine project is evident. Thus, the experts suggested replicating elements of this model in the Hungarian context. However, many questions on the energy service company model were raised: How do we know the cost savings doesn’t disappear in the energy service company’s pockets? Why should we engage with models like Energy Performance Contracting, rather than wait for grant support?

Nevertheless, most of the participants agreed: energy efficiency projects that are profitable don’t need to wait, as we are wasting money every day by not acting immediately. The benefits of energy efficiency should also be better valued, and by consequence, better monetised to build solid business plans.

After the debates in Budapest, it became clear that the state level can help to set an operating framework with clear laws and long-term directions, which would allow local and regional governments to act effectively on energy efficiency. The conference made clear the local authorities actually implement projects and push the other levels of government to make the legislative framework more supportive. The numerous local governments present in the conference confirmed the basic principle of CITYnvest: local governments are the catalysers that walk the talk and implement concrete energy efficiency projects.

Presentations and pictures from the event are available on its page.

Source: CITYnvest