Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze commented: “EUKI has already worked with over 300 organisations. More and more project proposals are being submitted from the priority countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. In this way, the EUKI can fulfil its role as a platform and network for European climate action projects even better.”

The new projects can be assigned to the 8 topic areas of EUKI: climate policy, energy, buildings and municipalities, mobility, agriculture / soils and forestry, awareness, climate-aligned finance and sustainable economy.

The “Green Deal CEE” project, for example, builds on an earlier EUKI project and supports civil society organisations in becoming more actively involved in EU climate and energy policies. In addition, information is to be provided on the economic and ecological benefits of a just transition in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The main focus is on the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, but also regional workshops are offered in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.

In the region of Lower Silesia and the border regions of Poland with the Czech Republic and Germany, the Polish project implementer “Forum For Civic Initiatives Foundation” is developing a future-oriented school curriculum within the project “Sustainable Ecosystem for Climate Education”. This is based on the needs of the labour market as well as on environmental and climate action requirements.

Public buildings, especially schools, are not yet being renovated from an energy-efficient point of view in many Eastern and Southern European countries. As part of the project “Training Tool for More Efficient Schools”, the Greek university “National and Kapodistrian University of Athens” will develop a so-called “Total Training Toolkit” for the first time together with partners in Greece and Cyprus. This compendium is given to young engineers, construction professionals and students in order to achieve a faster implementation in the construction of low-energy buildings in the long term, to avoid defects in the construction phase and to reduce construction, operation and maintenance costs.

Since 2017, the Federal Environment Ministry has funded 157 projects across the EU with around 62 million euros, which are selected and advised by EUKI. The EUKI projects have a duration of up to 28 months. Previous EUKI projects in Poland, for example, have helped to shape national guidelines for climate action legislation. In Latvia, employees of an EUKI project analysed investment plans and capital increase opportunities for the woodworking industry and in the Czech Republic for the district heating industry. These plans were incorporated into the planning and revision of measures to implement the national energy and climate plans (NECPs) of both countries. As part of the “Regions Beyond Coal” project carried out by WWF, a strong working group for mayors in Europe (Forum of Mayors on Just Transition) has been founded and established.

The original text was published in German as press release No. 267/21 on the website of the Federal Ministry for the Environment.