The energy performance of the building stock remains extremely low at Mediterranean level. To address this, the European Neighborhood Instrument for Cross Border Cooperation in the Mediterranean Programme (ENI CBC MED) identified renewable energy and energy efficiency as major priorities and funded 8 projects. The session, which was part of the Policy Conference at this year’s edition of the EU Sustainable Energy Week, portrayed concrete examples of how to perform cost-effective energy renovations of public buildings. These examples were put in the context of global policies, as per the Status Report of the Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction (Global ABC).

Among the projects participating from both shores of the Mediterranean was BERLIN project, presented as a good example of energy efficiency solution in public buildings. Gianni Celli, Associate Professor from University of Cagliari presented the solutions of the project and actively participated in the discussion regarding the policy recommendations.

The Policy Conference was fully successful in bringing together public authorities, private companies, projects, NGOs, and consumers to promote initiatives to save energy and move towards renewables for clean, secure, and efficient energies and covered various topics such as REPowerEU, the digitalisation and integration of energy systems, energy efficiency, renewables, consumers and a fair energy transition, decarbonisation policies and international cooperation.

In parallel to the Policy Conference, the Energy Fair was an excellent opportunity for both BERLIN and other projects to be exhibited and interact with the wider public on their work and find new ways of collaboration and replication.