Speakers’ presentations are available here.

View the recording here:

Join the European Commission, Natural Resources Canada, and representatives from governments in Belgium and Spain on April 20th, 2021 – 16:00-18:00 CET | 10:00-12:00 EST

In this webinar, you will learn:

• What are the strategies in leading EU Member States and Canadian provinces to boost energy efficient renovations and decarbonize the building stock by 2050? What is the important role that they play and how are they progressing?
• How have authorities in Flanders, Belgium and Spain developed high-quality long-term renovation strategies to achieve highly energy-efficient and healthy building stock, what have been the challenges to implementation and how do they plan to overcome this?
• How can we assess progress across Canada through the Provincial Efficiency Scorecards? How are provincial governments developing strategies adapted to their regional circumstances and what are their current challenges?

Agenda:

Welcome, housekeeping and agenda: Oliver Rapf, BPIE

Session 1 – From EU policy to national reality: Developing and executing national long-term renovation strategies

• Introduction to Member States’ role in the EU agenda: national long-term renovation strategies – Gaspard Demur, Team Leader for National Renovation Strategies and Recovery, DG Energy, European Commission
• Flanders’ long term renovation strategy – Roel Vermeiren, Renovation Strategy advisor, Flemish Energy Agency
• The Spanish Long-term Renovation Strategy and the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan – D. Javier Martin, Residential and Land Managing Director, Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Spain
• Q&A with the audience

Session 2 – Implementing strategies to accelerate efficient retrofits and decarbonize the building sector in Canadian provinces and territories

• Tracking provincial policies and performance on energy efficiency: Efficiency Canada’s annual Scorecard & policy database – James Gaede, Senior Research Associate, Efficiency Canada, Lead Author of the Provincial Efficiency Scorecard
• Strategies and initiatives from British Columbia– Katherine Muncaster, Director, Energy Efficiency Branch, British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources
• Q&A with the audience

Closing remarks – Gaspard Demur, Team Leader for National Renovation Strategies and Recovery, DG Energy, European Commission

Read the full concept note

About the Canada-EU exchange

Disclaimer: This event has been organised with the financial support of the European Union’s Partnership Instrument. The opinions expressed are the sole responsibility of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union.

Speakers:

Gaspard Demur – Team Leader for National Renovation Strategies and Recovery, DG Energy, European Commission

M. Demur is Team Leader for National Renovation Strategies and Recovery at the European Commission, Directorate for Energy (DG ENER). He is ensuring the mainstreaming of energy efficient renovation of buildings into the post-Covid recovery plans that EU Member States are currently developing in cooperation with the European Commission. He is also coordinating the analysis of the National Long Term Renovation Strategies. He previously worked as an Assistant to the Director General of DG ENER, following closely the Governance of the Energy Union as well as nuclear and international files.

Oliver Rapf – Executive Director, BPIE (Moderator)

Since 2011, Oliver Rapf is Executive Director of BPIE, the Buildings Performance Institute Europe, a Brussels based think-tank with a focus on energy and the built environment. Before joining BPIE, Oliver worked for the global conservation organization WWF in various roles, including as Head of the Climate Business Engagement unit of WWF International, managing strategy and partnership development with the private sector. Leading an international team, he advised multinational companies on climate change and energy issues.

Oliver’s experience in buildings efficiency goes back to the late 90s when he was a project leader for several deep renovation projects on behalf of WWF in cooperation with housing companies across Germany. Earlier, Oliver participated in UNFCCC negotiation process, and was the leader of the German NGO coalition at international conferences. Oliver has been active as a jury member of environmental and sustainability awards, and serves on various advisory boards. In his early career, he worked on regional sustainability strategies and spatial planning.

James Gaede – Senior Research Associate, Efficiency Canada

For the past 10 years, James has conducted research on energy and environmental politics and public opinion in Canada through a variety of capacities, including two postdoctoral fellowships, research associate positions at York University, Wilfrid Laurier University and the University of Waterloo, and as an independent consultant. He has also been a member of two cross-Canadian energy-related research networks, prepared several successful research grant applications, and served as organizational and technical consultant at multiple academic associations.

James received is PhD in Political Science from Carleton University in 2014, where he specialized in comparative politics and international relations. His doctoral dissertation focused on the politics of visualizing the future for sustainable energy, looking specifically at controversy surrounding oil supply forecasts by the International Energy Agency in the early 2000s. Some of the topics James has written and published on since include carbon capture and storage, biofuel policy, energy efficiency, and energy storage.

D. Javier Martin, Residential and Land Managing Director, Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda, Spain

Javier is the General Director of Housing and Land within the General Secretariat of Urban Agenda and Housing of the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda. He is an architect from the School of Architecture of the Polytechnic University of Madrid.
He entered as a civil servant (Architect of the Public Finances) since 2001. He has 20 years of experience in the public sector, in the General State Administration, in areas of projects and building works, property management, architecture, housing and land.

Since October 2016 he has been part of the Board of AENA, S.A. until November 2020 when he became member of the Board of International Development of AENA, S.A.
In June 2018, he was appointed General Director of Architecture, Housing and Land, of the Ministry of Development.

Katherine Muncaster, Director, Energy Efficiency Branch, British Columbia Ministry of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources

Katherine is Director of the Energy Efficiency Branch within the BC provincial government, and is responsible for policy and programs for energy efficiency and fuel switching in buildings.  Katherine oversees the suite of incentives and support offered through CleanBC Better Homes and Better Buildings, as well energy efficiency requirements for equipment and building components sold in BC. The Energy Efficiency Branch is also responsible for regulations that govern utility energy efficiency spending, and funding of innovation and research through the Building Innovation Fund. With her background in climate policy modelling, she was involved in modelling of the building sector for the BC’s climate plan. During the course of her 12 years with the Branch, Katherine helped draft key legislation and regulations that enabled utility involvement in electrification, renewable natural gas, and expanded energy efficiency portfolios.  

Roel Vermeiren, Renovation Strategy advisor, Flemish Energy Agency

Roel Vermeiren started working for the Flemish Energy and Climate Agency (VEKA) in 2008, after 10 years of work in labor market and vocational training policy. He worked on both social energy policy and on energy efficiency for the residential sector. Since medio 2015 he is the project leader for the Flemish long term renovation strategy 2050 for the residential sector. Besides the development of the central tools as the building building passport and a renovation advice, specific support measures already became available. A LIFE-funded national program 2018-2024 for demonstration projects, innovative business models and capacity building was set up under the name of BE REEL! under the coordination of VEKA.