Following the completion of our neighbourhood surveys in April, the EVALUATE project team is embarking on stakeholder workshops in three of our case study cities – Prague, Budapest and Gdansk.
The first of these events take place in Prague on the 15th of June. Energy vulnerability and energy poverty are becoming increasingly recognized in the Czech Republic. However, there is lack of evidence and knowledge on the extent and driving forces of these problems, as well as their effects on polices which directly or indirectly influence the ability of households to secure adequate energy services.
Our team will organize the Prague workshop together with partners at Charles University and the CEE Bankwatch Network. Participants will include researchers, representatives of ministries and other governmental institutions in the fields of housing, energy or social policies, representatives of municipal districts in Prague where the research was carried out, and civic organizations active in the broad field of energy vulnerability. They have been invited to reflect on EVALUATE project findings, as well as network and share their ideas on how to deal with these challenges in the Czech context and how to use experience from other countries.
Preliminary results of the EVALUATE survey from Prague will also be presented and discussed. The survey took place in February and March in two districts of Prague. Praha 7 represents an inner city neighborhood which has experienced revitalization and gentrification. Increasing rents in the relatively old housing stock are increasingly pressuring the ageing local population. Praha 14 is a diverse neighborhood at the edge of the city. The territory consists of old rural settlements that were added to Prague, housing estates built between the 1960s and 1990s, as well as some new housing. There are many municipal flats in the area. Concentrations of socially excluded or vulnerable populations can be found in two parts of the Praha 14.
The survey in Prague covered issues that influence energy vulnerability at the household level – the size and structure of households, their income and expenditure on housing and energy, type of housing, its age and level of maintenance, sources of heating, and consumption habits related to energy consumption. Getting to the respondents was one of our main challenges. We had to use a variety of sampling methods in order to obtain the 700 responses, which are now being analysed.
We will be moving to Budapest on the 16th of June. The Budapest workshop is being co-organized with the Critical Urban Workshop and Central European University. More information about the survey we undertook in that city can be found in a previous blog post.
We continue to Gdansk on the 18th of June. The Gdansk workshop, titled ‘Energy vulnerability in urban areas’ is co-organized with partners at the University of Gdansk and the Metropolitan Institute. It has three principal aims:
- Dissemination of the latest results of the research on energy vulnerability among representatives of municipal institutions, energy companies and NGOs;
- Elaboration of proposals for improving the existing regulations, activities and good practices in the field of energy consumption in the city;
- Integration of stakeholders involved in creating and animating urban policy in the areas of energy, environment, housing and social assistance.
The results of two national surveys dedicated to energy poverty, carried out by leading Polish think-thanks, will also be presented at the meeting.
The workshop builds on the results of the EVALUATE survey carried out in March 2015. It involved 600 households in 2 districts of Gdansk – the socialist-era housing estate Przymorze, and the inner-city historical district of Wrzeszcz. Respondents were asked, among other issues, about energy consumption, the condition of the housing stock and related investment plans.
Energy Vulnerability and Urban Transitions 