The eceee Summer Study was back early June 2022 with an in-presence event. What a pleasure for the newTRENDS team to present insights into two panel sessions* and an “informal” event. Additionally, Heike Brugger, newTRENDS project coordinator, co-led the panel “Efficiency and beyond: innovative energy demand policies” which explored whether we have the right new policy ideas to move us towards a significantly lower energy demand.
The panel motto was that policy innovation does not necessarily require completely radical approaches: it could mean rethinking and applying existing policy approaches to make them work more effectively, or a complete reimagining of how policy works and how we tackle the twin challenges of increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy demand. New approaches like “multiple benefits” that exploit wider societal and policy trends and non-carbon drivers, such as health, welfare, amenity and comfort in households and reputation, asset value, risk and compliance for businesses are emerging. In addition, we need to significantly reduce our overall energy demand and allow greater flexibility for it, such as demand response, decarbonise energy supply, and address areas that are difficult such as heating buildings and for transport. All these need innovative digital approaches, shifts in behaviour, and societal changes. This panel intended to catch cross-sectoral innovative ideas, such as the concepts behind newTRENDs, and the emerging societal trends like working from home and increased us of ICT.
At eceee, the newTRENDs team presented the work done in the project first 18 months in an ‘informal’ session, a comparison of circular economy measures for the decarbonization of building materials and investigated the lock-in effect of decarbonisation of the residential sector.
Read more in our short brief and get access to the presentations and papers behind the research.
*The two newTRENDs presentations were organised in panel 8 – Innovations in products, systems and building technologies (Identifying the Lock-in Effect in the Decarbonization of the Residential Sector, Songmin YU) and panel 9 – Deep decarbonisation of industry (Cement, concrete & the construction sector) (Decarbonising the building value chain of the European Union: A systematic overview of circular economy measures and their potential impact on basic materials, Meta Thurid LOTZ).
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