PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Energy poverty (EP) is a crucial socioeconomic problem, as it deprives people of a basic standard of living and quality of life. There are several factors associated with EP, but it is mainly connected with three causes: high energy costs, low household income and energy-inefficient buildings. REVERTER will develop a number of roadmaps to alleviate energy poverty by addressing the poor energy efficiency of dwellings. The roadmaps will target the worst performing homes first (“worst first” principle) and will be tailor-made to the characteristics of the building stock, the vulnerable households and the climate conditions, so as to cover a sufficiently cohesive group of cases, allowing for a larger-scale rollout and replication of the proposed actions. By targeting the worst homes first and by focusing on the most cost and environmental effective renovation methods through integrated assessment, REVERTER will help to upgrade a greater number of homes for a given budget, maximising energy and costs savings while reducing GHG and other pollutants emissions. REVERTER will cope with split-incentive dilemmas and will address market, information and behavioural failures through the creation of “one-stop shops” as defaults for the enrolment of vulnerable households in subsidy schemes for building retrofit. These households will be helped to increase their awareness about efficient energy use before and after energy interventions by the REVERTER Ambassadors, information campaigns and capacity building actions, all with a view to improving their health, well-being and living comfort. REVERTER will test the roadmaps by setting up a network of pilots in four different European countries, i.e. Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia and Portugal, that cover different climate regions and socioeconomic conditions, and through the engagement with local, national and EU stakeholder groups and experts it will embed the roadmaps in future policies for the reduction of energy poverty.