SONYA attended the Climate Chance Europe 2024 Wallonia Summit

Our SONYA colleague, Aurore Fransolet, was invited to participate as a panelist in a discussion on the social aspects of building renovation as part of the Climate Chance Europe 2024 Wallonia Summit.

This summit, which took place on 8 and 9 February at the Palais des Congrès in Liège, was organized by the Walloon Climate and Environment Ministers to contribute to the work on climate adaptation carried out by the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. The event brought together nearly 1,000 participants mainly from civil society and led to the adoption of the “Liège Declaration”, a roadmap from non-state actors to adapt to climate change in Europe. The declaration signed by more than 70 organizations was fed by the reflections carried out as part of a series of thematic workshops organized during the summit.

The workshop on building renovation and sustainable construction, in which Aurore took part, also included Geoffrey van Moeseke (Professor, UCLouvain), Marcela Norena, Projet Shared Green Deal, WECF), Geoffrey Grulois (Professor, ULB), Anne-Michèle Janssen (Head, Eco-Construction) and Julien Dijol (Director of Policy, Housing Europe), and was chaired by Prudence Adjanohoun (Secretary General, Réseau Habitat et Francophonie). This workshop gave rise to enriching and stimulating exchanges on the multiple technical, behavioral, social, and political challenges of renovating buildings to face growing climate risks.

As part of this discussion, Aurore focused on the social justice issues associated with the renovation of residential buildings. She pointed out the inequalities in the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions from the residential sector, the inequalities in the impacts of climate change linked to the quality and location of housing, the inequalities in the impact of building renovation policies and the inequalities in participation in the development and implementation of these policies. On this basis, Aurore underlined the need for a ‘just transition’ placing social justice at the heart of the building renovation policy. She concludes by mentioning the COGITO project she coordinates, which, through one of its three case studies, aims to explore what a just transition policy could look like in the housing sector in the Brussels-Capital Region.

Source of the pictures: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7161743520851050496/