More than 600 representatives from local authorities, industry and financial institutions were present, making this the biggest edition to date.
The participants could hear from a total of 44 front-runner projects and initiatives on financing climate adaptation, energy efficiency, clean mobility and innovative energy planning from Europe and beyond. The conference confirmed once again the value and interest in peers’ experiences that inspire other cities and regions to replicate, upscale and support their local contributions to Europe’s decarbonisation and climate-resilience.
The event opened with welcome speeches by Julien Guerrier, the Director of the Executive Agency from Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME), Ditte Juul Jørgensen, Director General for Energy (DG ENER), and Clara De La Torre, Deputy Director General for Climate Action. Mohamed Ridouani, mayor of Leuven, gave a keynote speech on the role of public authorities in the energy transition, by presenting his city’s outstanding effort to become completely carbon neutral by 2050.
The panel discussion that followed deepened the debate on blending public and private funds in energy efficiency investment. The speakers discussed how energy efficiency can benefit from such blending, with a background of the new lending policy of the European Investment Bank, the EU sustainable finance agenda coordinated by DG FISMA of the European Commission as well as views from the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group and private investors.
Three horizontal workshops have been co-organised by DG ENER and EASME. The first one, Engaging cities, industry and financial institutions in a 'renovation wave' of private and public buildings, gathered 80 stakeholders from the building value chain to give input to the European Commission’s initiative to accelerate the rate of renovation. Issues discussed included the role of local actors in bringing projects to reality; how to deal with the specificity of social housing, schools and hospitals, which are central to the renovation wave; and the market needs which should be addressed by the proposed open platform in a participatory manner. The second workshop, Smart Cities & Communities – what’s next?, focussed on the future developments of the Smart Cities & Communities call, bridging to the matchmaking event which took place on 20 February, back to back with the main conference. Finally, Support to clean energy transition in the next MFF – focus on LIFE and HORIZON EUROPE, gave participants some insights on future EU funding for energy efficiency.
In six breakout sessions, 44 flagship projects and initiatives from across Europe shared and discussed their achievements. A few examples include:
- the City of Leuven in Belgium pioneering on how a collaborative approach of involving public and private stakeholders has proved highly effective on driving an energy transition towards a climate neutral city.
- the City of Vienna in Austria boosting the quantity as well as the quality of building renovation through establishing a one-stop-shop service for residential property refurbishment under the RenoBooster project. A test phase with 40 houses will be launched at the end of 2020.
- the Innovate project setting up 11 one-stop-shop pilots in 10 countries targeting the residential building sector. Currently various financing schemes are being mobilized in close cooperation with local financing institutions.
- In Poland a commercial bank BNP Paribas running the Energy Efficiency Finance Facility for Residential Buildings (EEFFRB) providing technical assistance to housing associations with support from the ELENA programme. Currently, there are 72 projects in the pipeline and the goal is to reach 800 projects with an investment of 78 MEUR (2019 – 2022).
- The Smarter Finance for Families project focusing on the green mortgage market. After good progress in Romania, over 10 implementing partner countries have prepared locally adapted "toolkits" and are now contacting banks and residential developers to launch their Green Homes & Green Mortgage programmes.
The event closed with an official inauguration of the European City Facility, which will support European cities with financial (EUR 60,000 grant) and technical support, in order to transform their energy and climate strategies into real investments. The first call will open in May 2020, with all information available soon on the initiative website.
The conference proceedings including videos from the plenary sessions and all presentations will be uploaded shortly on the Sustainable Energy Investment Forum webpage.
Final Proceedings
To access the final Proceedings, click here.
To watch the event's video, click here.
Presentations
If you missed any of the sessions or if you would like to revise some of their content you can download all presentations below:
1st Breakout session
- Innovative approaches for energy and mobility planning at city level (simpla)
- Quality management systems as tools to implement SECAPS - the EEA (COMEEASY & IMPLEMENT)
- Open source mapping and planning tools for heating and cooling networks (HOTMAPS & THERMOS)
- Fostering a participatory transition - how 6 cities got inspired by Leuven 2050 carbon neutrality roadmap (TOMORROW & LEUVEN)
- Achieving regional carbon neutrality by 2050 - an European perspective and a focus on North Croatia (C-TRACK50)
2nd Breakout session
- Amsterdam's Smart City Mobility Concept (SCMC)
- Land value capture and the lessons from Crossrail I project from London (TFL)
- Hydrogen mobility solutions for buses, garbage trucks and taxi fleet (FCH-JU)
- Funding sustainable mobility infrastructure through parking management - lessons from Krakow (Park4SUMPS)
- Sustainable freight logistics for the last mile - micro hubs and ultra-light vehicles in Mechelen (CCCB)
3rd Breakout session
- Energy efficiency project development for south Attica (PRODESA)
- Citizens and cities as responsible investors - lssons learnt from energy cooperatives (RESCOOPMECISE)
- Energy performance and supply contracting initiative in Baden-Wurttemberg (INEECO)
- Scaling up investments through citizens financing schemes (CITIZEE & VIPA)
- Bundling of street lighting renovation projects across 14 municipalities in Alentejo centra region in Portugal (CIMAC)
- ZEROcarbon Sonderborg - energy efficiency in public housing (PROJECTZERO)
4th Breakout session
- Setting up integrated home renovation services - from concept to practice (INNOVATE & RENOBOOSTER)
- Cooperation among third-party financing operators in France (PUCA)
- Experience in developing green mortgages programmes in Europe (SMARTER)
- Exploring options for home-based financing (EUROPACE & REN-ON-BILL)
- Energy efficiency finance facility for residential buildings in Poland (EEFFRB)
- Energy companies designing and implementing schemes to alleviate energy poverty (SOCIALWATT)
5th Breakout session
- Access to third party finance made easy (SEAF and LAUNCH)
- Focus on quality - standards and assurance schemes for investors confidence (ICPEurope & QualitEE)
- Derisk energy efficiency investment with standards and insurance - insights from a tested model (ESIEUROPE)
- Exchanging knowledge on innovative financing schemes with peers (E-FIX & PROSPECT)
- Innovative business models and price based service contracts to achieve energy savings in buildings (AMBIENCE & NOVICE)
6th Breakout session
- Adapting financial portfolios - how to reduce transition risks of investment (LIFE PACTA)
- Quantify the financial risk implications of climate change to the building stock (CREEM)
- Nature and the city - insight into nature-based climate adaptation investment (CONNECTINGNATURE, NAIAD & NATURVATION)
- Insurance and climate resilience - new risk assessment and management solutions tested in italian cities (LIFE DERRIS)
- Investing in climate resilient building stock - lessons from Finland (LIFE EconomisE)
- Sustainable freight logistics for the last mile: Micro-hubs and ultra-light vehicles in Mechelen (BE) (City Changer Cargo Bikes)
Horizontal sessions
Details
- Publication date
- 20 February 2020