On October 15, the Climate Ready Barcelona team participated in the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH) Conference in Barcelona to present the project’s efforts in the fight against energy poverty.
Sharing energy poverty solutions
The 4th International EPAH Conference in Barcelona brought together over 450 participants with the aim of fostering cooperation between local, governmental, and private actors to combat energy poverty, as well as promoting inclusive and sustainable solutions. The event presented the results and lessons learned from advising public administrations within the EPAH project. It also included discussions and expert presentations on practical solutions for energy poverty, one of which was the use of artificial intelligence in the context of the Climate Ready Barcelona project.
Using artificial intelligence to mitigate energy poverty
As part of the conference “Artificial Intelligence and Energy Poverty: Innovative Solutions and Strategic Alliances”, the Climate Ready Barcelona project was presented, which seeks to support the citizens and public institutions of Barcelona in anticipating and adapting to the effects of climate change and the related energy crisis.
The conference brought together experts from various sectors to discuss how artificial intelligence can help detect and combat energy poverty. The speakers emphasized the need to address this issue from a multidimensional approach, which includes social services, health, housing, and urban planning.
Contributions and insights from experts
As a representative of the Barcelona City Council, Patrici Hernández emphasized the importance of this holistic perspective to avoid the failure of public policies and shared the role of the EAC (Energy Advice Centers) as an information and support service to prevent and reduce energy poverty.
Aniol Esquerra, co-director of the Associació Ecoserveis, presented the La Meva Energia app, funded by the EU – NextGenerationEU, which is being developed within the project to facilitate and improve the attention offered by the EAC’s in Barcelona.
Jordi Cipriano, director of the BEE Group at CIMNE, presented the climate vulnerability map that uses various data to see how climate change affects different areas of Barcelona and predicts with artificial intelligence (AI) the impacts on the population to plan public policies.
The conference concluded with Aránzazu Herráez, data protection officer and personal data management lead in AI projects at the Getafe City Council, who presented the EPIU Getafe project. Herráez emphasized the importance of managing personal data within an appropriate legal framework.
In the conclusions, the importance of providing personalized attention, harmonizing data, empowering citizens, and promoting municipal and regional collaboration to effectively tackle energy poverty was highlighted.
For more information
Climate Ready Barcelona is a project funded by Local Governments for Sustainability, funded by ICLEI with the support of Google.org and includes the participation of partner entities such as Associació Ecoserveis, ABD, Barcelona City Council, CIMNE, and Bitgenoma.
To learn more about the event and Climate Ready Barcelona’s participation, you can check out the following article that presents the EPAH Conference, highlights the main topics discussed during the event, the practical solutions presented, and provides access to all the presentations from the two days of the conference.
