Public intervention for house renovations: mobile, motive and opportunity
How can public interventions increase the number and quality of renovations of housing units in France so as to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions?
The government’s ambitious objectives for the “energy performance” of buildings, in particular private housing units, call for major investments, approximately €15 billion/year. Current incentives have proven capable of raising only half of this amount, and most of these funds go to dispersed interventions with little heed for energy efficiency.
Mobile, means and opportunities are necessary to meet these objectives and for concretely realizing home improvements. This can be achieved only through a combined use of regulatory, economic and financial tools. Existing tools must be overhauled ; and new ones, created at the national and local levels.
Hadrien Hainaut, Ian Cochran and Benoit Leguet have recently published an article on this topic in Responsabilité et environnement, accessible in French here. (subscription required for free access)