Greening Europe’s homes and public spaces is a crucial element of the EU’s strategy towards climate neutrality, and one of the pillars of the European Green Deal. But what does that entail?

In this webinar, we present our latest report: “A Blueprint to deliver a healthy, affordable, and sustainable built environment for all”. The paper makes argues that focusing on energy efficiency and renovations alone would be a mistake for the decarbonisation of buildings. A successful strategy for our built environment and infrastructure must take into consideration the limits of our natural world and resources, while also ensuring that sustainable homes become an affordable solution for all citizens. The EU’s work towards greener buildings should therefore include a broader approach and clearer policy commitments to radically change the real estate business and reduce the overconsumption of construction materials.

This webinar follows up on the launch of a previous report by the EEB and Oxfam Germany: “Towards a wellbeing economy that serves people and nature” .

Moderator: Frédéric Simon, Journalist and editor, Energy & Environment. EURACTIV.

Speakers

• Pia Mamut, Research Fellow at the Chair of International Relations and Sustainable Development at the WWU – University of Muenster. Her work concentrates on sustainable development and consumption with respect to energy and climate governance in particular. As part of this work, she conceptually and empirically analyzes sufficiency as an objective in local climate governance. She is also working on the potentials and barriers to participation in sustainability governance, with a particular focus on the bioeconomy, as well as structural politico-economic conditions for a shift to 1.5° Lifestyles.
• Doris Fuchs, Professor of International Relations and Sustainable Development and Speaker of the Center for Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research at the WWU – University of Muenster. She has worked extensively on the political economy of sustainable development, with contributions focusing on the structural politico-economic contexts of sustainable consumption and the concepts of strong sustainable consumption, consumption corridors, and 1.5°Lifestyles in particular. Most recently she published Consumption Corridors: Living Well within Sustainable Limits (Routledge 2021) with an international and interdisciplinary group of researchers.
• Anja Bierwirth, head of the research unit “Urban Transitions” at the Wuppertal Institute of Climate, Environment and Energy. She studied architecture and environmental sciences, worked as an architect and in the field of environmental education. Since 2008 she is part of the Wuppertal Institute working in the fields of local energy and climate action policy, energy efficiency and sufficiency in buildings and sustainable urban development.
• Yamina Saheb, lead author of the building chapter of the upcoming IPCC report on climate change mitigation. Yamina is a fellow at OpenExp and a senior researcher at the University of Lausanne as well as a fellow at the University of Münster. Prior to this Yamina was heading the building research programme at the European Commission’s Joint Research Center and the Sustainable Building Centre at the International Energy Agency. Yamina holds a PhD in Energy Engineering, a master’s degree on landscape Architecture and another master’s degree on Development Economics as well as an Engineering Degree on Building Technologies.

Reactions by

• Ciaran Cuffe, member of the European Parliament for Dublin with the Green Party. He sits on the Energy and Transport Committees of the Parliament, and serves as president of EUFORES, a European NGO that promotes the deployment of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency. He is an architect and planner, and graduated in 2019 with a Masters in Cities from the London School of Economics. He has served as a Dublin City Councillor, TD for Dún Laoghaire, and Minister of State with responsibility for sustainable transport and climate change. He lives with his family in Stoneybatter in Dublin’s North Inner City.
• Stefan Moser, born in Munich in 1971 and trained as an economist and a lawyer. He joined the Commission in 2000 in DG Competition to work on control of state aid to public undertakings and services, notably financial institutions. From 2005 to 2009, he worked in DG Environment on climate and environment policy, notably greenhouse gas emissions trading, transport emissions and air quality.