Energy efficiency in Estonia

About

Around 50 participants attended the webinar on 10 September 2020, organised in cooperation with DG REGIO and the Estonian ministry of economic affairs and communication.

Target audience

The event targeted interested Estonian Stakeholders and included the participation of speakers from Estonia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany, the European Commission and the EIB.

Objectives

Estonia has set ambitious targets to improve energy efficiency (EE) for the modernisation of its housing stock. The funds and financing attributed during the ongoing period of financial perspectives contribute to the achievement of the long-term renovation strategy, which aims at upgrading the entire Estonian housing stock to a high efficiency level.

The webinar aimed at exchanging experience on the way EU or national grants may contribute to incentivise Energy Efficiency investments in residential buildings, mostly multi-storey buildings composed of apartments owned by their residents.

During the webinar experts from national agencies and/or promotional banks in Estonia , Lithuania, Poland and Germany provided an overview of the history of activities to promote energy efficiency investments for existing and new housing stock.

DG REGIO has underlined the crucial Climate Action importance of progress in renovating existing housing stock, especially in Estonia and generally in the Baltic countries. No other sector of the economy has a comparable potential to reduce specific energy consumption. This was confirmed by a short contribution by DG ENER.

 JASPERS and ELENA were considered to have the potential to provide strategic or project related advice to the government and to relevant agencies and local authorities. Advice may focus on establishing programmes for certain types of housing and on addressing weaknesses, mainly related to housing stock renovation in remote areas of the country with weak economic and demographic development and low real estate values.

The EIB at large could possibly contribute to a potentially revolving housing investment fund.