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The EU GCC Clean Energy Technology Network, with the support of the Clean Energy Business Council (CEBC) is organising as series of webinars entitled Energy Efficiency: A key driver for clean energy transition. The first webinar Energy Efficiency in the Building Sector: Strategies, Regulations and Business Models to Promote EE Technologies will take place on Tuesday 7 July 2020 at 12.00 CET.
Currently, the Gulf countries face many challenges in the energy sector such as low energy efficiency, a chronic dependence on fuel subsidies and related high CO2 emissions. To tackle these issues, the GCC countries are now embarking on a clean energy transition pathway, which targets a more sustainable, efficient and cost-effective methods for using energy.
In Europe, the building sector is crucial for achieving the EU's energy and environmental goals. Indeed, to boost energy performance of buildings, the EU has established a legislative framework that includes the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) and the Energy Efficiency Directive. Together, the directives promote policies that will help (i) achieve a highly energy efficient and decarbonized building stock by 2050 (ii) create a stable environment for investment decisions and (iii) enable consumers and businesses to make more informed choices to save energy and money.
Due to the specific demand for heating and or cooling, buildings constitute a large percentage of the overall energy consumption in the Gulf and in Europe. Energy efficiency measures and technologies, including smart technologies, can play a major role to reduce energy intensity and thus emissions. There are solutions available suited for small, medium and large-scale applications and that can be implemented in different sectors of the economy such as buildings. Such measures include building management systems, building envelope, new building materials, advanced lighting solutions, smart cooling and energy services. In addition, energy efficiency provides significant co-benefits in terms of job/SMEs creation, increased value of the property, higher levels of comfort, revenue generation, interaction with research and innovation, increasing competitiveness and an improvement of companies’ corporate images. These series of webinars will debate policies, business models and technology solutions suitable for both regions the EU and the GCC for the building sector. It also aims to exchange relevant EU and GCC best practices and lesson learned as well as opportunities for EU GCC partnerships.
The series of webinars shall seek answers to the following questions:
- Which opportunities/options and challenges exist for energy efficiency at local and regional levels?
- What are the most convenient/suitable policies and regulations that can enable energy efficiency actions/projects?
- What are the drivers for investment and its financing in energy efficiency?
- What are successful business models to accelerate the introduction of energy efficiency technologies and measures? What role can SMEs and ESCOs play in the sector?
- Which key actions/recommendations should be suggested to promote collaboration between the EU and the GCC stakeholders?