The EMPOWER project innovatively addresses two urgent challenges in European cities and regions: the opportunity to reduce CO2 emissions from buildings using new technology and better management, and the need for more investment to meet the EU’s CO2 reduction targets. The potential is considerable: buildings account for 40% of EU energy requirements and 36% of carbon emissions: effective energy monitoring could reduce demand by 10%. And the Commission considers that energy efficiency is market-ready, ie suitable for private investment. But progress is slow. Energy monitoring systems are available for individual houses and large schemes. Little exists for medium-sized schemes. Key decision-makers do not always understand energy management. Private investors are nervous about long term energy management investment, they need good local management and quality performance data. The project’s objective is to reduce carbon emissions from buildings, particularly in medium-sized schemes, while also supporting jobs and growth in the local economy. We will improve regional policies by: * analysing partners’ plans through peer review, * identifying good practices that will improve these plans, studying them through Study Visits, importing them via special workshops and Regional Action Plans. * developing cost-effective energy monitoring systems and using these in existing buildings and to attract private investment * building the capacity of all relevant public authorities including ERDF Managing Authorities The project’s main outputs will benefit the building users, key decision-makers, SMEs working in energy, investors. They are: * New projects that innovate by applying cost-effective energy monitoring to reduce energy demand, using new technology. * Improved governance between different levels of government, using the plan–do-act-check principle and providing quality data to attract and reassure commercial investors.