Workshop on regional heating and cooling priorities and financing in the framework of the Smart Specialisation Platform (S3P-E H&C)

The workshop on smart specialisation on heating and cooling was organised by the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), with the support of the European Commission's Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) and Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO). It was focused on two key topics: (1) regional heating and cooling priorities from technology and energy planning perspectives, and (2) heating and cooling financing.

The aim of the workshop was to:

• understand the current state-of-play and the expected future of the heating and cooling (H&C) sector across EU regions, 
• discuss the role of regional authorities and their cooperation with national and EU entities on how to uptake the ESIF funds to decarbonise the heating and cooling sector, including barriers, opportunities and challenges.

The workshop was attended by 40 participants, 18 of them from the regional authorities and regional policy making bodies as regional energy agencies. The eight participating regions/countries were Sofia (BG), Bulgaria (country), Nord-East (RO), Slovenia (SI), Andalucía (ES), Western Macedonia (EL), Castilla y León (ES), Lubelskie (PL).