Funding programme

LIFE is the EU’s funding programme dedicated to the environment and climate action.

Read more about LIFE.

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Call overview

This call aims to alleviate energy poverty by addressing the poor energy efficiency of dwellings, as a key risk factor causing energy poverty

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Objective

The topic aims to alleviate energy poverty by addressing the poor energy efficiency of dwellings, as a key risk factor causing energy poverty (the other two being low incomes and high energy expenditure). Buildings are still responsible for 40% of Europe’s total energy consumption, and too many Europeans struggle to afford the energy bills for their poorly insulated dwellings with polluting heating/cooling systems.

In accordance with the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, Member States, through their National Energy and Climate Plans and Long-Term Renovation Strategies (LTRS), must identify dwellings of people at risk of energy poverty and develop effective strategies for renovating these as a matter of priority. The Energy Efficiency Directive (2012/27/EU) (EED), as amended by Directive 2018/2002/EU, requires Member States to take into account the need to reduce energy poverty in the context of their energy efficiency obligations. In addition, the revised EPBD requires Member States to target the least efficient building stock first (“worst first” principle), and address split-incentive dilemmas and market failures as part of the national LTRS. At the same time, the European Green Deal sets out to ensure an energy transition that is socially just and inclusive, with the Renovation Wave as its centrepiece. This is also supported by e.g. the Commission Recommendation on Energy Poverty.

In addition to tackling high bills and energy use, this topic aims to address the many negative impacts low quality building stock have on residents, including poorer health and lower levels of social inclusion. Common barriers to household uptake of renovation measures include the related high upfront costs, lack of information and trust, uncertainty about benefits of the measures, split incentives, and discomfort caused by renovation works, including the potential need to relocate.

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Scope

Proposed actions should facilitate the market uptake of renovation approaches for the large-scale rollout of building-related interventions for vulnerable districts, clusters of buildings, or groups of such buildings managed by e.g. common building management entities, social/public housing organisations, or private owners of a large housing stock, in line with the Renovation Wave and the Commission Recommendation on Energy Poverty. Activities should demonstrate the effectiveness and replicability of the proposed approaches for the energy renovation of vulnerable districts.

Proposals should clearly identify the type of housing targeted: private or public rental housing, individual or multifamily buildings, owner-occupied or mixed tenure, etc. In case of rental properties, actions should help ensure that tenants’ total costs of occupancy are maintained after renovation works in order to avoid district gentrification.

The approaches should be one or more of the following:

• Supporting the renovation of private multi-apartment buildings, with a special focus on reinforcing and adapting the governance and decision-making structures of building management and homeowners associations, tackling related regulatory framework barriers (e.g. property and/or rental laws), and setting up and coordinating relevant support services.
• Developing and implementing roadmaps ^[6] for the energy renovation of a vulnerable district or group(s) of buildings with vulnerable residents, involving all stakeholders in the elaboration and implementation of the investment plan. Such roadmaps should prevent lock-in effects. Low cost measures can only form a small, complementary part of the roadmaps.
• Rolling out holistic, industrialised deep renovation solutions, including also approaches based on pre-fabricated modules for the renovation of vulnerable districts.

Expected Impact

Proposals should result in reduction of energy poverty for the energy-poor households due to building energy renovations; increased capacity and preparedness of local and national stakeholders to deliver such renovations in the future; development of successful approaches for the energy renovation of vulnerable districts, which can be replicated in other regions or Member States.

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Read more details in the call document, page 58.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

+ be legal entities (public or private bodies)

+ be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
• non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the LIFE Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (participating countries)

+ the coordinator must be established in an eligible country

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Budget

The indicative budget for this topic is 6,000,000 EUR.

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Funding rate

Maximum 95% funding rate.

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