Day 1

9:30 – 10:00       Registration & Welcome Coffee

10:00 – 10:15     Welcome by

• Ulrike Leis, Deputy Director of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI)
• Julia Gross, German Ambassador to Hungary

10:15 – 11:45     Panel discussion: Current chances and opportunities for the Hungarian green transition

                           Moderator: Peter Olajos, President of CEEweb

                           This event will be streamed via the EUKI Academy.

• Noémi Dálnoky, Hungarian Ministry of Regional Development and Utilization of EU Funds
• Matthias Casper, Counsellor of European Climate Policy, German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK)
• Barbara Kovács, Head of the Department for Climate Policy, Hungarian Ministry of Technology and Innovation (TIM)
• László Szabó, Director, REKK Foundation for Regional Policy Co-operation in Energy and Infrastructure (REKK Foundation)

11:45 – 12:15     Coffee Break

12:15 – 13:45     “ConversTations”, Moderator: Csaba Mezei, General Secretary of CEEweb

Introduction of all Hungarian EUKI projects in a gamified manner

13:45 – 15:00Lunch

15:00 – 17:30     Climate Action Simulation with En-ROADS Climate Policy Simulator

                          Moderated group exercise of interactive climate policy simulation. Commitment is needed by participants to engage for the whole duration of the session.

• Viktor Jósa, CliMates

18:00 – 20:30     Gala Dinner

Day 2

9:30 – 10:00       Registration & Welcome Coffee

10:00 – 10:15     Welcome and introduction by Aleksandra Khirv, Project Lead CEEweb

10:15 – 11:45     EUKI projects exchange I, Moderator: Aleksandra Khirv, CEEweb

                           Each project shares lessons learned, success factors and challenges before running a quick Q&A session.

• “From advocacy to implementation. How EUKI projects helped community energy in Hungary”:
  Ágnes-Szalkai Lőrincz and Bence Kovács, MTVSZ
• “Breaking barriers to low-carbon investment in Budapest”: Ada Ámon, Head of Department for Climate and Environmental Affairs, Municipality of Budapest
• “Making the carbon taxing FAIR”: Anna Bajomi, Habitat for Humanity Hungary

11:45 – 12:15     Coffee Break

12:15 – 13:45     EUKI projects exchange II, Moderator: Aleksandra Khirv, CEEweb

                           Each project shares lessons learned, success factors and challenges before running a quick Q&A session.

• “Complexity of the biomass energy – lessons learnt”: Adam Harmat, WWF Hungary
• “How to predict CO2 emissions from transport – TEDiT tool “: Ágoston Princz, CAAG
• “Consolidating Ambitious Climate Targets with End-Use Sufficiency (CACTUS)”: Mária Bartek-Lesi, REKK

13:45 – 15:00Lunch

15:00 – 16:30     ”Walk-shop” around Budapest, Moderation: Katalin Tarr, CAAG

                            Guided field visit around Budapest city center with the visit of “good and bad practices” of EU funding allocation in Hungary.

18:00 – 20:30     Dinner

Download the Agenda here

Further Information

• Allocating EU Funds in CEE: A Webinar
• CEEweb for Biodiversity’s Website

As a result, the project has created a Best Practice Database of initiatives, actions, projects, and investment measures, providing recommendations on how money expenditures go from a climate perspective.

Within this recorded webinar, every country representative presented such examples. If you missed it, find the recording here, as well as the presentations.

Moreover, feel free to visit, consult and collaborate with our Best Practice Database

First stop: Maribor

The study tour started in Maribor, a charming city with rich historical and cultural heritage surrounded by the Pohorje Massif and picturesque vineyards, with a video welcome speech and an overview of local climate action by the mayor Aleksander Saša Arsenovič. Through various measures to strengthen sustainable mobility and green infrastructure, as well as by setting ambitious targets in this regard, Maribor is striving to maintain a high-quality living environment.

In the further course, the city’s projects related to nature conservation, improvement of biodiversity and the spread of green areas, parks and corridors were examined in more detail.

The city park Three Ponds and the small island in the Drava River, carefully maintained by the municipality and home to many birds and plant species, are great examples of the protection of nature and biodiversity. On the Drava promenade, the swans have even become its symbol. Every year the municipality erects a fence around the swan nests and passers-by can witness the rearing and growing of the young swans.

Great attention is also paid to the tree rows and flower beds in the city. Public green spaces destroyed by improper parking are being renewed, and projects to create “urban forests” in industrial areas and conurbations are planned.

Further Information

• Three4Climate: Cities from Portugal and Slovenia explore climate protection projects in Germany
• Three4Climate: Cities from Germany and Slovenia explore climate action projects in Portugal
• Kolesodvor – protected bicycle storage room in Maribor (in Slovenian)
• KRsKOLESOM – Slovenia’s largest electrified bike rental system (in Slovenian)
• Prostofer project (in Slovenian)
• The cronies. Free Shuttle to Call. · Municipality of Kranj (in Slovenian)
• Green roofs in Kranj – Interreg (interreg-central.eu)
• Zelena streha, Kranj — (prostoroz.org) (in Slovenian)
• Smart Mlaka – smart city platform – YouTube

Next, the programs in Maribor aimed at reducing car traffic and promoting cycling, walking and the use of public transport were presented. These include closing large areas to car traffic, building new bike lanes, establishing a bike parking facility (Kolesodvor) in front of the main train station, providing free parking for alternative fuel cars, establishing an electric car sharing system, improving public transport, etc.

Second stop: Kranj

The tour continued in Kranj, the third largest municipality in Slovenia, located on a rock below Šmarjetna gora at the confluence of the Kokra and Sava rivers. The mayor Matjaž Rakovec welcomed the participants in a video message and introduced the town and its climate action activities.

Kranj’s sustainable mobility strivings and projects were presented, especially in the field of e-mobility. One of them is KRsKOLESOM – the largest electrified bike rental system in Slovenia with 75 electric bikes. KRsKOLESOM goes beyond the city limits and other municipalities in the Gorenjska region in a joint Gorenjska.bike system. Other projects include the Prostofer Project – a volunteer service of active drivers providing free rides to elderly people who need transportation and Kranvaj – a free e-minibus service running through the Old Town.

The participants were then able to learn about Kranj’s various greening, infrastructure and digitalization projects, all of which are part of the city’s efforts to achieve a sustainable transformation.

Among the examples of projects presented was the greening of the roof of the Stane Žagar elementary school, with positive environmental impacts (water retention, cooling of the building on hot summer days and heat conservation in winter), as well as educational and social ones, as it is used by students and school staff as a classroom and outdoor terrace. Other efforts include a commitment by the municipality to plant 1000 new trees over the next 4 years.

Among the infrastructure projects and future plans are the creation of shorter connections between different parts of the city by public transport and the connection of the urban area with the surrounding natural environment through a pedestrian bridge and a new bicycle path. Digitalization efforts also include the Smart Settlement Mlaka pilot project, which will make it possible to gather all the settlement’s energy and water data in one place and make it available to the city administration, as Tomaž Lanišek, from the Unit for Development, Smart Community and Projects explained in his presentation.

The closing topics of the tour were regional approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation as well as plans to increase energy efficiency in public buildings in Maribor and Kranj. Both cities shared their experiences and touched upon aspects such as the potential for using wastewater for heating purposes, the development of a sustainable energy plan for the region, and the involvement of stakeholders in and financing of public building renovation projects.

With the virtual study tour to Slovenia, the Three4Climate municipalities completed showcasing their local climate action activities within the project. Having virtually visited each other, the community representatives and the relevant departments in the three countries were able to build connections which will enable further exchange of tested measures and ideas in the future.

In our proposal we have

• elaborated our ideas for educational programs in technical “Green Skills” similar to offers in the German “dual system”, but focusing competence development and training in creativity , entrepreneurship and cooperative working.

• given particular attention on how to involve young Europeans (and refugees) without any work and professional qualification.

Because just these men and in particular women are suffering more and more seriously unemployment and social exclusion.
The proposal we have sent to the Commission should support the process of preparing new directives for youth employment. We have translated it in Greek and Spanish, the languages of the countries were the YES-clima project is implemented. We hope to initiate more and profound discussions and activities on how to involve the youth in the Green Deal and for their own sustainable future.

Read the full version of the proposal in:

Visit the project webpage for more information.