''Improving Energy Efficiency in Low-Income Households and Communities in Romania''

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Today, 20 October 2011, the Minister of Regional Development and Tourism, Elena Udrea, and the Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme in Romania, Yesim Oruc, signed the project "Improving Energy Efficiency in Low-Income Households and Communities in Romania".

The project will be implemented by the MRDT and the UNDP (Romania), with support from the Ministry of Environment and Forests, the Association of Energy Auditors for Buildings and the Romania Green Building Council.

The project objective consists in increasing energy efficiency in 40 buildings (kindergartens, nurseries, health centres, homes for the elderly, houses etc.) in low-income communities, using local technologies (traditional materials), distinct for each area, and whose target is to reduce fuel consumption costs.

"The UNDP experience in managing such projects helps us to implement more effectively and more rapidly a new thermal rehabilitation programme, which makes the subject of the protocol signed today," said Minister Elena Udrea.

In her turn, Yesim Oruc mentioned she appreciates the enthusiasm and involvement of the MRDT specialists in this complex process, which is only one of the areas in which the UNDP and the MDRT cooperate.

The project budget is USD 3 million (GEF – UNDP Grant) and the financial contribution of the local public authorities from Romania is expected to be approximately 10% of the value of rehabilitation works. The local public authorities will be actively involved in carrying out the project, and in finalising it there is the condition to prove the intention to multiply it. At the national level, good practice guides for administrative-territorial units will be elaborated, and, at the regional level, there will be elaborated methodologies aimed at multiplying the project in similar regions and brochures for each technology used.