Description
In line with the Paris Agreement and the 2030 goals for climate and energy set by the European Commission, there is a great need for cities, municipalities and local authorities to invest in sustainable energy and climate solutions. However, many public stakeholders struggle with limited human resources and capacity and overcoming financial barriers. Also, a lack of experience in developing sound investment packages can be a significant barrier especially for smaller and medium sized municipalities. Nevertheless, public stakeholders have huge potential for uniting synergies and working towards a more energy and climate friendly future in Europe.
The European City Facility (EUCF) is an initiative to support local investments in sustainable energy. The objective of the EUCF is to is to facilitate access to private and EU financing along with access to technical, legal and financial expertise. In the long run the aim is to deliver at least 200 investment concepts in cities and municipalities all over Europe.
An investment concept within the EUCF initiative can be
- Identification of potential project pipeline
- Analysis of local stakeholders controlling the pipeline
- Legal Analysis (regional, national, international)
- (Pre-feasibility) analysis of available financing solutions
- Roadmap: basic process to launch investments
Successful applicants will receive a grant of 60 000 euros that is to be used for developing an energy investment program. The EUCF is coordinated by consortium consisting of Energy Cities, Climate Alliance, FEDARENDE, Adelphi and ENVIROS.
Activities
The UBC SCC's role in EUCF is acting as a national expert for Finland, Denmark, Estonia and Latvia.
Being a national expert involves communication and dissemination of the EUCF activites and on-going calls throughout the iniative's lifetime.
Funding
The EUCF is funded by Horizon 2020
Lessons learned
Several UBC cities have used the opportunity provided by the EUCF throughout the calls, and were among the applications selected for funding.