ESPON Open Seminar, GödöllöPolicy Oriented Panel 5 (22/06/2011)

Strategies for competitive, sustainable and secure energy

ESPON Applied Research Project 2013/1/5

Regional vulnerability factors

Regional vulnerability factors

Regional typologies (energy poverty)

ReRisk: findings on energy poverty in EuropeStrategies for competitive, sustainable and secure energyNew challenges require new policies. Creating a unified and efficient common energy policy is a new priority and an important opportunity for the European Union. One of the greatest challenges currently facing the European territory is how to achieve energy security. According to the Hungarian EU Presidency, Europe needs to create a common European energy market, build the necessary infrastructure, devise adequate financing method, agree on unified actions vis-à-vis the external partners and diversify sources, routes and suppliers. Besides energy security, a common energy policy is considered as an exit route from the crises as the “greening” of the energy sector is considered an excellent opportunity to increase employment.

The mid-term European energy strategy defines the main directions of the European energy policy in line with the long-term future objective to create a low-carbon economy in the European Union. But the EU not only needs to upgrade the energy infrastructure and address the obsolete of its energy network, the EU needs as well to improve energy efficiency and energy savings and increase the use of renewable energy.

How will and can different European territories answer to this challenge?

Which elements and tools have to be adapted within existing strategies or by elaborating new ones?

ReRisk: findings on energy poverty in Europe• When presenting the ReRisk findings on energy poverty to policy makers,

a growing concern about energy security, the social impact of rising energy prices and the need to promote alternative energy sources and energy efficiency can be observed

• We found evidence that regions with a higher level of autonomy tend to play a greater role in energy policy, especially with regard to promoting renewable energy. However, proof of the benefit of a stronger involvement of regional and local governments in energy issues should be demonstrated further. Technology and market trends work in favour of a more decentralized energy system, but the division of regulatory responsabilities in this new context has not yet been widely discussed.

• Also, there is a need to clarify to which extent regional cooperation can help to make quicker progress towards renewables and greater energy efficiency.

• There is also a strong case of a close cooperation between the regions and the municipalities, due to the local character of most new energy projects and, especially, energy efficiency measures for (low-income) households.

ReRisk: findings on energy poverty in Europe

• The ReRisk results should be updated with more recent socio-economic data in order to better reflect the impact of the crisis and rising energy prices on industries and households. The data elaborated in the project permits to draw a pre- and post-crisis profile of the European regions.

• Further required actions:

– Energy policies need to focus much more on consumption than on production in order to achieve higher levels of efficiency. This is especially relevant in industrial regions with high energy costs. Benchmarking systems for energy consumption in industrial processes could be an interesting tool

– Plan the transition process: planning tools such as GIS systems need to be adapted to support the transition to a much more decentralized energy system with a very different mix of energy sources. Socioeconomic aspects will be much more important in such a system than they are in centralized systems

– Innovative financing models are necessary to help low-income households to pay for the upgrading of homes and to lower their energy bills, instead of subsidizing consumption.