PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Efficient, decarbonised energy use is key to achieve a low-carbon European Union (EU). Buildings represent the highest energy saving potential in the EU and show strong prospects for renewable energy production. France has the second largest floor area in the EU. Investing in renovations and renewables in the French building sector is therefore key to achieve the EU’s climate and energy targets. Scaling up investments in renovations and renewables in the building sector is financially beneficial, in the long-term, to almost all stakeholders to this field. However, to date, such investments are strongly insufficient. This lack of financing can be approached as a use case of the “tragedy of the commons” (Hardin, 1968), in which pursuit of self-interests in the short-term is detrimental to long-term interests of each stakeholder. The most efficient fix to such an issue is to complement market coordination with more explicit coordination. This is the overarching objective of the FR-BS project. The FR-BS project will foster cooperation of all stakeholders, such as private construction actors, financiers, public actors and citizens owning homes. A dialogue will take place within roundtables aimed at building a common understanding across stakeholders. Roundtables’ stakeholders will co-design turnkey propositions to alleviate barriers to scaling up investments in renovations and renewables in the building sector. Because public money is falling short of the investments required, such investments must come mostly from the private sector. We propose an innovative methodology to do so. The project will start with building a strong understanding of the private interests of all stakeholders. It will enable stakeholders to identify areas of convergence between them, which will foster the co-design of a strategy to scale up investments which satisfies, as much as possible, their interests. This method is a guarantee of the relevance and applicability of the strategy.