Introducing this Karima Delli hosted session which took place at the European Parliament with the support of the Covenant of Mayors, Daniel Cohn Bendit expressed the view that although eco homes and eco neighbourhoods are already reality for some, finding adequate finance and putting the right logistics in place to provide energy efficiency housing for all, in particular low-income groups would merit a Nobel prize. Jose Lopez from GroupeBurgeap re-called that thermal renovation rates of Europe’s 200 million houses currently stands at under 0.3% and that financial institutions have a key role to play in speeding up this rate. Andres Jaadla from The Estonian Federation of housing Cooperatives presented the Estonian system which has managed to largely overcome some of the logistic challenges faced by many others resulting from the fact that condominiums (which house over 60% of Estonians) are in the hands of individual private apartment owners. Stéphane Dupas intervening on behalf of Energy Cities highlighted the fact that credit access is too bureaucratic which often prevents cities getting their hands on the required amounts.
Paul Ciniglio from Radian Housing Association, one of the first organisations in the UK to make use of the new possibility of using ERDF funds for energy efficiency in housing, said the measure was making a huge and very welcome difference on the ground while stressing the need for flexibilty in the granting of funds which would allow regions to set their own priorities. Juan Alario from the European Investment Bank listed loans the Bank has already made to support refurbishment and promote renewables but highlighted the fact that we need to transform renovation into an industry. Thomas Sanchez from Caisse des Dépots et Consignation in France stressed that the risk for loans for energy efficiency remains high and that risk reduction will be needed to get private finance flowing into this area. Gudrun Gumb outlined the very successful German KfW energy efficiency promotion scheme providing low or zero interest loans which is serving as a model for other countries due to its high impact. Rudolf Niessler speaking on behalf of DG Regio warned that the take up of the 4% of funds potentially available in each region remains low.

Concluding the session, CECODHAS-Housing Europe's president observed that the content of the interventions revealed that the answers to the various financial questions have been found, just as the technical ones are already known, but that the missing piece of the picture is the political leadership to put all these answers together. This political leadership will come he said when the public demand is there. We must create a situation where people are calling for energy efficiency in their homes because they want it, not because a moral obligation is being imposed on them.