Actor-grounded Coordination Structures for Summer Energy Poverty

While energy poverty during cold winter months has long been a policy priority, extreme summer heat presents a distinct and rapidly escalating crisis that remains largely absent from European regulatory agendas.

Driven by climate change, rising global temperatures, and increasingly severe heatwaves, vulnerable households across Europe face acute health and socio-economic risks. These vulnerabilities are severely heightened by substandard housing, severe urban heat island effects, low energy efficiency, and a widespread lack of passive or affordable cooling solutions. National Energy Poverty Observatories provide essential policy guidance. However, they lack the operational reach to turn national strategies into local action or ensure policies address ground-level needs.

The ASSUMMER project addresses this critical governance gap by establishing operational multi-actor Summer Energy Poverty National Coordination Structures that bridge policy and implementation in each Euro Mediterranean country. The project brings together 10 expert partners across 8 European countries (France, Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Slovenia, and the Netherlands). By connecting policymakers with local social, healthcare, technical, and urban actors, it drives a deep structural transition rather than short-term emergency fixes.

Main objectives:

• Coordinate local actors in implementing measures addressing extreme heat conditions.
• Support the two-way dialogue (input and feedback) at local level between social and policy actors.
• Foster the two-way vertical dialogue between local and national policy-makers to support alignment of local policies with national strategies and policies.
• Support the development, implementation, and replication of local, regional and national policy measures.
• Contribute to increased comfort at household / building / urban scales.
• Contribute to an overall European implementation-policy framework.

Key project activities:

• Mapping & Policy Framework: Comprehensive mapping of summer energy poverty policies, local initiatives, key stakeholders, and best practices across the Euro-Med region.
• National Coordination & Governance: Operational setup of 7 Summer Energy Poverty National Coordination Structures (SEP-NCS) engaging over 220 active local actors (reaching 700+), supported by a Mediterranean Coordination Board.
• Toolkit & Capacity Building: Co-creation of multilingual tools, training modules, and an interactive digital repository.
• Pilots & Peer Learning: Mentorship for 70 local actors and cross-border peer-to-peer exchanges for 35 organizations to build long-term operational capacity.
• Dissemination & Sustainability: EU-wide outreach, policy advocacy, and a long-term roadmap for post-project replication.

Expected impacts:

• Establishment of permanent multi-stakeholder governance networks.  
• Direct delivery of practical cooling and energy-saving tools to multi-local actors 
• Full alignment with LIFE Performance Indicators (households reached, energy savings, CO₂ reduction, and triggered investments). 

Project partners: Aisfor Srl (Italy), RETE ASSIST-ETS (Italy), Asociacion Ecoserveis (Spain), Universidad politecnica de madrid – UPM (Spain), Reseau Cler (France), Društvo za oblikovanje odrzivog Razvoja – DOOR (Croatia), Ethnicon Metsovion Polytechnion – NTUA ( Greece), Astiki Mi kerdoskopiki etaireia – INZEB (Greece), Agia Paraskevi (Cyprus), Frederick University FU (Cyprus), Institute for European Energy and Climate Policy Stichting – IEECP (Netherland) and Focus, association for sustainable development (Slovenia) 

Project duration: September 2026 – December 2029 

Contact: quentin@focus.si