11 Greece
From near- term actions to long- term
pathways – risks and uncertainties
associated with the national energy
efficiency framework
Alexandros Nikas, Nikolaos Gkonis, Aikaterini Forouli,
Eleftherios Siskos, Apostolos Arsenopoulos,
Aikaterini Papapostolou, Eleni Kanellou,
Charikleia Karakosta, and Haris Doukas
Introduction
At both the community and the member state level, the European Union (EU)
has committed to actions focusing on enhancing energy efficiency in pursuit of
mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing security of energy
supply and socio- economic sustainability. Drawing from its respective national
commitments as well as the need to respond to the European and global efforts
on climate change, Greece too has recently been striving to design and implement an effective and sustainable energy efficiency policy framework.
These efforts have been a dynamic learning process through which the policy
framework is redesigned along the way. Such a framework encompasses policy
instruments, measures, and interventions, including financial incentives and tax
breaks, in the energy efficiency area. These actions primarily regard the built
environment but to some extent are also focused on the energy efficiency of the
transport sector. At the same time, since energy efficiency programmes in the
building sector also include initiatives for residential micro- generation from
renewable sources, this framework has implications for energy policy and is synergistic with further diffusion of renewables. So far, the policy framework has been
oriented towards financial incentives for the diffusion of renewable energy as well
as a building renovation strategy across all scales: residential, public, and private.
In respect to progress in implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive,
Greece, among other countries (Fawcett, Rosenow, and Bertoldi, 2017), appears
to be on track to achieving its energy efficiency goals of 20%; it does, however,
lag behind its goals in respect to achieving new savings of 1.5% of the annual
energy sales to final consumers every year until 2020 (Nikas, Ntanos, and
Doukas, n.d.). On the renewable energy front, the country appears not to be on
track either (Capros et al., 2016), with respect to achieving the Community- set
From near- term actions to long- term
pathways – risks and uncertainties
associated with the national energy
efficiency framework
Alexandros Nikas, Nikolaos Gkonis, Aikaterini Forouli,
Eleftherios Siskos, Apostolos Arsenopoulos,
Aikaterini Papapostolou, Eleni Kanellou,
Charikleia Karakosta, and Haris Doukas
Introduction
At both the community and the member state level, the European Union (EU)
has committed to actions focusing on enhancing energy efficiency in pursuit of
mitigating greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhancing security of energy
supply and socio- economic sustainability. Drawing from its respective national
commitments as well as the need to respond to the European and global efforts
on climate change, Greece too has recently been striving to design and implement an effective and sustainable energy efficiency policy framework.
These efforts have been a dynamic learning process through which the policy
framework is redesigned along the way. Such a framework encompasses policy
instruments, measures, and interventions, including financial incentives and tax
breaks, in the energy efficiency area. These actions primarily regard the built
environment but to some extent are also focused on the energy efficiency of the
transport sector. At the same time, since energy efficiency programmes in the
building sector also include initiatives for residential micro- generation from
renewable sources, this framework has implications for energy policy and is synergistic with further diffusion of renewables. So far, the policy framework has been
oriented towards financial incentives for the diffusion of renewable energy as well
as a building renovation strategy across all scales: residential, public, and private.
In respect to progress in implementing the Energy Efficiency Directive,
Greece, among other countries (Fawcett, Rosenow, and Bertoldi, 2017), appears
to be on track to achieving its energy efficiency goals of 20%; it does, however,
lag behind its goals in respect to achieving new savings of 1.5% of the annual
energy sales to final consumers every year until 2020 (Nikas, Ntanos, and
Doukas, n.d.). On the renewable energy front, the country appears not to be on
track either (Capros et al., 2016), with respect to achieving the Community- set