We are developing an online decision-support tool for energy efficiency measures. REFEREE will quantify the multiple benefits of energy efficiency, e.g. in terms of CO2 and pollution reduction, health improvement and well-being, employment and monetary gains. The tool will be accessible to everyone : no specific software or modeling skills are required. Whether you work at local, regional or national level, energy or non-energy fields, you will be able to see the multiple benefits of energy efficiency.

REFEREE builds on E3ME, a macro-econometric model designed to address national and global economic and economy-environment policy challenges. Newly built technology diffusion models will assess the deployment of technologies in response to policy interventions in four sectors: road transport, housing, power and manufacturing industries (with process heating).

The REFEREE team is working with a Policy Advisory Group, composed of policy-makers, investors, businesses, and researchers at local, national and EU level. REFEREE Policy Advisory Group provides feedback on the design and content of the tool. When the tool prototype will be ready, pilot case studies will test the tool on real-world energy efficiency measures. Finally, a diversity of resources will be available for the users, including training workshops.

REFEREE is a European-funded Horizon 2020 project that started in October 2020 and will run until April 2024.

In order to deliver the European Green Deal, which sets out the roadmap for making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, we need to accelerate our efforts to improve the energy efficiency of our buildings, transport, public service and industry. In this context, REFEREE aims to

1. Analyse and quantify the direct and indirect non-energy impacts of energy efficiency investments
2. Develop an easy-to-use tool to support policy makers at the national, regional and local level.

REFEREE will help households, businesses, financing institutions, policy makers and other relevant stakeholders to evaluate the multiple impacts of their energy efficiency choices.

To maximise the impact of the REFEREE policy support tool, stakeholders will be involved from the inception of the project, through concrete opportunities for its co-development, pilot studies, and dissemination and communication actions.

PROJECT COORDINATOR

ISINNOVA is an Italian leading research and consultancy firm in the EU supporting policy makers in the formulation, monitoring and evaluation of energy, transport and environmental policies.

ENERGY-ECONOMY MODELING

Cambridge Econometrics is a UK consultancy and research firm. It has extensive experience in the quantification of the benefits of energy efficiency and in the application of such techniques to policy assessments.

TOOL DEVELOPMENT

MCRIT is a Spanish firm specialized in the development of advanced decision support systems and planning methods, including information, forecasting and policy assessment models

The Center for the Study of Democracy is a European public policy think tank based in Bulgaria, specialized on energy governance processes and socio-economic theory.

The Jacques Delors Institute is a European think tank based in France that counts on a wide and high-level network of policy representatives and experts throughout Europe.

B.A.U.M. Consult GmbH is a German consulting and knowledge management company that counts on a vast network of firms and organizations in Germany and abroad

The European Environmental Bureau is an umbrella organisation that brings together 160 civil society organisations from more than 35 European countries.