BMU Funds 25 new Climate Action Projects in Europe
The German Federal Ministry for the Environment approves the launch of 25 new projects whose work will advance the implementation of the EU’s climate protection goals, particularly in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe, the Baltic states and EU accession candidates. The numerous activities of the projects contribute at local, regional and national level to making Europe the first climate-neutral continent.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze: “The EUKI has already worked with over 300 climate protection organisations. More and more project applications are being received from the priority countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. This enables EUKI to fulfil its role as a platform and network for European climate protection projects even better.”
The new projects can be assigned to the 8 thematic areas of the EUKI: Climate Policy, Energy, Building Sector and Municipalities, Mobility, Agriculture, Soil and Forests, Awareness Raising, Climate-friendly Financing and Sustainable Business.
The project “Green Deal CEE”, for example, builds on an earlier EUKI project and supports civil society organisations to participate more actively in EU climate and energy policies. It also aims to provide information on the economic and ecological benefits of a fair energy transition in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. The main focus is on the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, but regional workshops are also offered in Bulgaria, Romania and Slovakia.
In the Lower Silesia region and Poland’s border regions with the Czech Republic and Germany, the Polish project implementer “Forum For Civic Initiatives Foundation” is developing a future-oriented lesson plan for schools in the project “Sustainable Ecosystem for Climate Education”. This is geared to the needs of the labour market as well as to environmental and climate protection requirements.
Public buildings, especially schools, are not yet renovated from an energy-efficient point of view in many Eastern and Southern European countries. Within the framework of the project “Training Tool for More Efficient Schools”, the Greek University “National and Kapodistrian University of Athens”, together with partners in Greece and Cyprus, will for the first time develop a so-called “Total Training Toolkit”. This compendium will be given to young engineers, construction experts and students in order to achieve faster implementation in the construction of low-energy buildings in the long term, to avoid deficiencies in the construction phase and to reduce construction, operating and maintenance costs.
Since 2017, the German Federal Ministry for the Environment has funded 157 projects with around 62 million euros in many different EU countries, which are selected and advised by the EUKI. The EUKI projects have a duration of up to 28 months. Previous EUKI projects have, for example, helped to shape national guidelines for climate protection legislation in Poland. In Latvia, staff from an EUKI project analysed investment plans and capital increase opportunities for the wood processing industry, and in the Czech Republic for the district heating industry. These plans fed into the planning and revision of measures to implement the national energy and climate plans (NECPs) of both countries. A strong working group for mayors in Europe (Forum for Mayors on Just Transition) has been set up and established as part of the “Regions beyond Coal” project implemented by WWF.
The original text appeared as press release no. 267/21 on the website of the Federal Environment Ministry. All news from the BMU can be found here.