Factsheet of the 1st National Roundtable in Romania

FINANCING SOLUTIONS FOR THE ENERGY RENOVATION OF BUILDINGS

Thursday April 15 2021

Organised by ENERO and Pro-nZEB in partnership with the Department of Sustainable Development - Government of Romania, the Ministry of Investments and European Projects and the Ministry of Development, Public Works and Administration.

SMAFIN project has received funding from the European Union's HORIZON 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 955857.

Roundtable Highlights

6 Sessions
Introductory Plenary – 3 Parallel Sessions
Closing Plenary

117 Stakeholders
23 speakers
94 attendees

3 Main discussion pillars:

Energy renovation of public buildings
Integrated home renovation services
The long-term renovation strategy – from set-up to implementation

Key Takeaways

By adopting the National Long-Term Renovation Strategy, Romania ensures the national strategic framework for the renovation of the park of residential and nonresidential, public and private buildings, aligned with the requirements of Directive 2018/844/EU, with European objectives established by the European Commission initiative "Renovation Wave" and climate strategies.

László Borbély, State Counsellor of the Prime Minister of Romania, Coordinator of the Department for Sustainable Development - Government of Romania

EU Recovery and Resilience Plan will support all economy sectors, but investing in an intelligent way in an economy based on digitalisation and decarbonisation solutions, is essential in the modernisation process and in the sustainable transformation of the economy.”

Tudor Constantinescu, Principal Adviser to the Director General for Energy European Commission

Energy Efficiency is one of the best solutions to consolidate the national energy security, to support the sustainable development of the economy and to improve the competitivity. (…) Energy Efficiency Improvement is a strategic objective of the national energy policies, and, in the same time, could contribute to the GHG emissions mitigation.“

Cristina Prună, Member of the Romanian Parliament - Vice-President Chamber of Deputies, Vice-President of the Commission for Industries and Services Romanian Parliament

Energy Efficiency projects will be financed in the following programming period through three national programmes: Regional operational programme, Just Transition Funds and National Programme for Recovery and Resilience.”

Marius Mihai Vasiliu, State Secretary, Ministry of Investments and European Projects

Building renovation and green solutions have a socio-economic and environmental impact. They bring huge benefits to cities, to communities, to us humans, and we seem to fail to fully understand them. I am convinced that adequately targeted financial resources and effective energy efficiency policies will have an incredible long-term effect on our quality of life and well-being. However, this can be achieved only through communication and change of attitudes at national, local, community level - something that requires resources and knowledge.

Dragomir Tsanev, Executive Director of EnEffect

Roundtable Conclusions

Energy renovation of public buildings

The main barriers are at legal and financial level, but opportunities brought by the new European and national strategies and actions plans should be prioritised.
Necessity of having trained professionals at the municipalities level (energy managers).
ESCO projects and EnPC should be better disseminated, and their advantages better known at local level.

Integrated home renovation services

Financial support for buildings owners is needed, but they have to be more involved in all aspects of the renovation process, including paying a part of the renovation cost.
Technical advice is crucial, and One Stop Shops (OSS) could be a solution for this.
Best practice examples should be disseminated on a larger scale. Integrated approach of the national strategies and action plans.

The long-term renovation strategy - from set-up to implementation

Partnership between decision makers and experts on the market is essential.
Complementarity of measures foreseen by different strategic documents.
Integrations of various financing instruments.
Dissemination of information and awareness raising, especially on buildings owners, as they are used with a single financing method-grants, situation that will be changed.
Monitoring the real energy savings and CO2 emissions reductions.

Roundtable Conclusions

Strategic documents have to be harmonised at national level, measures adopted need to be complementary, to support reaching the targets and avoid waste of money and efforts.
Financial sector needs to become green, more oriented towards financing greening projects. Taxonomy has to be followed when the investment decision is made.
Beneficiaries have to be involved in the development of different financing instruments.
Innovative financing schemes should be adopted and intensively promoted. When speaking about energy efficiency in buildings, no matter if public, commercial or residential, people think about grants, about budgetary financing. But debates that took place within the roundtable show that EE projects financed by private money were much better spend, with much significant results, in terms of energy consumption reduction, CO2 emissions avoided and occupancy conditions improvement.
Training and awareness raising are crucial at every level, from local, regional, and national authorities, with various professional categories (architects, urban planners etc.), as well as citizens and buildings owners and administrators.
Green Financing should be seen as an opportunity for a sustainable change.
Discussions and consultations should continue, inside the SMAFIN project, within the Working Group activities, within the next roundtable (when themes approached should be expanded to industry, for example), but also in other frameworks, as public consultations launched by local and central authorities or projects with similar or related themes. It is very important that as many as possible specialists have the possibility to express their opinion.

The 3 Parallel Sessions were moderated by: