Ana Corrêa do Lago

MAPPING THE IMPLEMENTATION GAP IN HOUSEHOLD ENERGY RETROFITS IN MADRID: BRIDGING DECARBONIZATION POLICIES WITH EVERYDAY HOUSEHOLD NEEDS?

Please join us for a lecture by Ana Corrêa do Lago.

The building sector is a crucial focus for reducing emissions in Europe, responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of GHG emissions. Europe is committed to achieving a climate-neutral economy by 2050, and Spain is actively aligning its policies with this commitment. With the majority of its building stock being residential and owner-occupied, Spain established the goal to increase household energy retrofits tenfold by 2030, in line with EU directives.

However, despite policy support at European, national and regional levels, implementation lags way behind targets. One of the main challenges is bridging the gap between individual household retrofit decisions—often shaped by situated and contextual factors—and the broader, large-scale decarbonization targets, which can feel disconnected from homeowners’ everyday concerns.

This research maps the distribution of subsidies across districts and neighborhoods in Madrid, analyzing variations in implementation at different scales. While progress at the municipal level has been slow, examining district-level data offers insights into areas like the Orcasitas neighborhood, where 70% of multifamily buildings have been retrofitted.

Ana Corrêa do Lago is a Brazilian researcher and economist with experience in managing public affairs and leading sustainability initiatives at the multinational company Natura –Brazil’s leading developer of cosmetic products based on the biodiversity of the Brazilian flora. She holds an MSc in Urban Ecologies from Parsons School of Design, where she developed her MS thesis on alternative water supply systems that emerged in São Paulo, Brazil, following the drought and water accessibility crisis of 2015. As a Marie Skłodowska-Curie fellow (co-sponsored by Fundación Tatiana Pérez de Guzmán el Bueno) she is based at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (ItdUPM), where her dissertation focuses on analyzing responses to household energy retrofits in Madrid, one of the key decarbonization policies being pushed to meet EU’s climate-neutrality objectives by 2050. She is currently visiting the Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia’s Climate School.

See her 2021 Essay in Society and Space: Following the Footsteps of the Caretakers: Parque Do Flamengo.

This event is co-sponsored by Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Urban Development at Columbia’s Climate School, GSAPP’s Real Estate Development program, and GSAPP’s Historic Preservation program

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