Greece 185
capacity and adequate trust in the stability of the policy framework to take
advantage of the support mechanisms? It is evident that these uncertainties can
foster the manifestation of severe implementation risks to any policy framework,
or allow for negative consequences of the latter to realise.
Challenges in the short to medium term
In light of the country’s near- term energy efficiency commitments, experts from
the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy were mostly interested in exogenous factors that pose challenges to the successful implementation of a new
policy framework, i.e. implementation risks. This can mainly be attributed to
the fact that the time horizon discussed, i.e. 3–10 years, was not perceived to be
long enough to accommodate a reliable evaluation of negative consequences.
Ministry experts agreed that a significant challenge for any strategy oriented on
enhancing energy efficiency in Greece lies in public perception. Citizens must,
first and foremost, comprehend the benefits of sustainable energy use; this has not
been done successfully in the past, and this type of limited awareness threatens
the implementation of respective measures in the residential sector, which covers
about 79% of the national building stock (Gaglia et al., 2017). There appears to
be a cognitive trade- off between the benefits of adopting a sustainable energy
behaviour and a household’s trust in a consistent and rewarding regulatory
environment, i.e. in the government’s ability to maintain a stable regulatory
framework that compensates citizens for taking up energy efficiency measures.
Despite this, compared to other possible actions, energy- efficient housing- related
subsidies and policy instruments (and, therefore, any initiative aiming at the residential sector) currently present the highest level of satisfaction, and are thus not
considered a priority for the state to do more (Zerva et al., 2018).
Lessons from failures of the past, such as the first ‘Save Energy at Home’
financial mechanism for residences, must be used to optimally design future
financial support schemes. So far, financial institutions, with an established role
as the broker, have not properly supported the processes, adding to the already
overburdened bureaucracy associated with applications for such programmes.
Due to the adverse economic environment, the banking sector is also seen to be
inadequate in promoting energy- efficiency-targeted renovations from a financial
capacity point of view.
Along the same lines, experts collectively pointed out the current difficulty
for the vast majority of the population of investing in building renovations, let
alone in constructing near- zero-energy buildings. The construction sector has
almost completely shut down due to the ongoing recession, as well as the severe
tax burdens imposed in the context of austerity. In fact, these burdens appear to
be among the few constant regulatory priorities throughout this period, which
are described by experts as politically unstable, to a point that they can severely
jeopardise the consistent implementation of the energy efficiency policy framework. Some experts, in particular, suggested that policymaking per se has lately
been carried out recklessly, without looking far ahead, and almost exclusively in
capacity and adequate trust in the stability of the policy framework to take
advantage of the support mechanisms? It is evident that these uncertainties can
foster the manifestation of severe implementation risks to any policy framework,
or allow for negative consequences of the latter to realise.
Challenges in the short to medium term
In light of the country’s near- term energy efficiency commitments, experts from
the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy were mostly interested in exogenous factors that pose challenges to the successful implementation of a new
policy framework, i.e. implementation risks. This can mainly be attributed to
the fact that the time horizon discussed, i.e. 3–10 years, was not perceived to be
long enough to accommodate a reliable evaluation of negative consequences.
Ministry experts agreed that a significant challenge for any strategy oriented on
enhancing energy efficiency in Greece lies in public perception. Citizens must,
first and foremost, comprehend the benefits of sustainable energy use; this has not
been done successfully in the past, and this type of limited awareness threatens
the implementation of respective measures in the residential sector, which covers
about 79% of the national building stock (Gaglia et al., 2017). There appears to
be a cognitive trade- off between the benefits of adopting a sustainable energy
behaviour and a household’s trust in a consistent and rewarding regulatory
environment, i.e. in the government’s ability to maintain a stable regulatory
framework that compensates citizens for taking up energy efficiency measures.
Despite this, compared to other possible actions, energy- efficient housing- related
subsidies and policy instruments (and, therefore, any initiative aiming at the residential sector) currently present the highest level of satisfaction, and are thus not
considered a priority for the state to do more (Zerva et al., 2018).
Lessons from failures of the past, such as the first ‘Save Energy at Home’
financial mechanism for residences, must be used to optimally design future
financial support schemes. So far, financial institutions, with an established role
as the broker, have not properly supported the processes, adding to the already
overburdened bureaucracy associated with applications for such programmes.
Due to the adverse economic environment, the banking sector is also seen to be
inadequate in promoting energy- efficiency-targeted renovations from a financial
capacity point of view.
Along the same lines, experts collectively pointed out the current difficulty
for the vast majority of the population of investing in building renovations, let
alone in constructing near- zero-energy buildings. The construction sector has
almost completely shut down due to the ongoing recession, as well as the severe
tax burdens imposed in the context of austerity. In fact, these burdens appear to
be among the few constant regulatory priorities throughout this period, which
are described by experts as politically unstable, to a point that they can severely
jeopardise the consistent implementation of the energy efficiency policy framework. Some experts, in particular, suggested that policymaking per se has lately
been carried out recklessly, without looking far ahead, and almost exclusively in