On the occasion of the French energy poverty day (1), Reclaim Finance and the YouGov Institute publish the results of a survey revealing the support of 76% of Europeans for energy efficient building renovation (2). Half of Europeans fear they will have difficulties paying their energy bills or heating their home this winter. They consider that the massive renovation roll out is blocked by financial issues. To overcome these obstacles, a majority of them support the use of public subsidies, simplified aid, and interest-free loans. While these solutions require government intervention, Europeans support the intervention of the European Central Bank (ECB). Indeed, the ECB could, in particular, allow the granting of interest-free loans for renovation via green financing operations.
Half of Europeans (3) fear that they will have difficulties paying their electricity bills and/or heating their homes this winter. This fear is present in more than 70% of households with an annual gross income of less than 15,000 euros and is more frequent in large families (4). In this tense context, 76% of respondents believe that public authorities should massively support building renovation to respond to the energy crisis and fight inflation (5). They consider the issue of financing to be the major obstacle to renovation (6): 76% of them cite the overall high cost of renovation, and 36% the cost of borrowing (7).
To overcome these obstacles, the majority of respondents support investment and public help, the simplification of aid and interest-free loans (8). Aid and loans are the levers most cited by people who say they fear difficulties this winter.
Hélène Denise, advocacy officer at the Fondation Abbé Pierre, said: "The message is clear: housing renovation is a response to the crisis and the fears of Europeans, the main obstacle to its deployment is financial, and must be removed through the massive support of public authorities. This support should come through different levers including increased subsidies, simplification of aid and access to zero interest loans. In a word, the demands of the NGOs fighting energy poverty and championing the energy transition are widely supported by Europeans."
The implementation of these solutions requires state intervention but can also be facilitated by the ECB, which can notably provide banks with preferential refinancing rates in exchange for zero-interest loans targeted at renovation (9). Thus, 76% of respondents agree that the ECB should support the reduction of energy consumption and the transition to renewable energies, in particular through building renovation (10).
Paul Schreiber, campaigner at Reclaim Finance, said: "Europeans are calling on the ECB to support Europe's energy transition to respond to the crisis. But even though the central bank recently recognized the importance of this transition in managing inflation (11), its repeated rate hikes could make it more expensive to finance building renovation and renewable energy (12). The ECB must walk the talk and set up "green" refinancing operations. It can start by directing them toward building renovation that delivers massive social benefits as well as energy consumption cuts."
Contact: Paul Schreiber, Reclaim Finance, paul@reclaimfinance.org , +33 6 89 02 07 88
Notes:
- The day against energy poverty organized on November 24th , 2022 brings together for the second consecutive year the French organizations involved in preventing energy poverty, fighting exclusion and global warming.
- The survey is conducted in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Download all the results here. See the methodological note for more details.
- All the averages expressed in this press release for the four countries surveyed are calculated on the total population of respondents. Therefore, they take into account the varying sample sizes. Thus, the German sample, which is twice as large as the others, takes a larger weight in these averages. For example, the percentage of respondents who think they will have difficulty paying their electricity bills and/or heating their home this winter is 50%,in the total population surveyed, but would be 51.5% if this average was calculated by aggregating the averages for each country
- This level is 55-56% for 3-5 person households and 64 and 74% respectively for 6-7 person households. It decreases for households with 8 or more persons
- This percentage rises to 83% for those who fear they will have difficulty paying their bills and/or heating their home, but remains very high at 72% for those who do not fear this.
- The other regularly cited obstacle (37%) is opposition from stakeholders.
- The loan rate is the second most cited problem in France (34%), Italy (43%) and Spain (45%). It is cited more frequently by people who fear difficulties in paying bills and/or heating this winter.
- Public investment and aid, simplification of aid and interest-free loans are supported by 52, 52 and 50% of respondents respectively.
- This demand is supported by the European coalition Unlock for energy renovation which proposes a comprehensive plan for renovation in Europe. As explained in a recent report by Reclaim Finance, it is in line with the ECB's mandate, compatible with current monetary policy and can help fight inflation.
- ECB intervention is supported by a large majority of respondents in all four countries. This support is even more pronounced among those who fear difficulties this winter and/or who support massive public intervention in favour of renovation. Furthermore, 82% of those who believe that the high cost of borrowing is hampering building renovation support ECB intervention.
- See the blog post published by the ECB on the occasion of COP27.
- See the analysis of Reclaim Finance.
Methodological note:
All data presented here is from YouGov France, unless otherwise noted. The survey was conducted online, on YouGov's proprietary panels in France, Germany, Spain and Italy from 02 to 04 November 2022. The survey was conducted on behalf of Reclaim Finance on :
- 1000 people representative of the French population aged 18 and over.
- 2032 people representative of the German population aged 18 and over.
- 1078 people representative of the Spanish population aged 18 and over.
- 1023 people representative of the Italian population aged 18 and over
This survey was conducted online (CAWI, computer assisted Web Interview) from the YouGov France respondent panel (460,000 people in France who have agreed to take surveys for YouGov). An email was sent to randomly selected panelists according to pre-established quotas to ensure the representativeness of the sample. The email contains an invitation to participate in the survey and a secure link to the questionnaire. YouGov France obtains one of the best response rates in the French market, varying according to the subject, complexity and length of the questionnaire. The responses are then weighted to obtain a representative sample of the target population. These weightings are based on administrative data, or on data collected by INSEE.