The Alpe-Adria Clean Transport Alliance allied
Within 2 years, EUKI project ‘Alpe-Adria Clean Transport Alliance’ created a network of almost 300 organisations. Together they designed a toolbox enabling local governments in the 4 regions Styria, Croatian Adriatic, Slovenia and Montenegro to optimize the future locations of EV chargers. The databases of the toolbox will be expanded to 3 more regions in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and North Macedonia. Their best practice booklet features 22 examples of good practices in fostering the decarbonization of the road transport in Austria, Croatia and Slovenia.
This report by REScoop.eu, the implementing organization of the EUKI project EUCENA, aims to understand the status quo of gender relations and the integration of women and men in energy communities. It also proposes strategies for mainstreaming gender in policy and practice.
Green(ing) H2: EU Workshop
From the community
© GreeningH2 Project
Accelerating the development of the European hydrogen market plays a crucial role in achieving energy resilience and climate neutrality. Despite the blueprint outlined, there are still many challenges and concerns which need to be addressed, to ensure the hydrogen strategy is designed and played out with a focus on sustainability. Hence, and building up on the series of national workshops organised in each consortium’s country, the partnering organisations of the Green(ing) H2 have launched an European level workshop. It aimed to discuss the Hydrogen Accelerator Plan, outlined by the European Commission in the RePowerEU Plan, and cross-check whether it fits with member states’ perspectives and plans by focussing on the consortium countries’ cases: Germany, Poland and Portugal. 14 July 22 | Agenda #registered: 110 EUKI funded project Green(ing) H2 hosted an outstanding panel of speakers to address different Member States’ Perspective on the EU Hydrogen Accelerator. Our panellists Esther Bollendorff, Ewa Mazur, Jeannette Uhlig, Henning Ehrenstein and Sofia G. Simões provided an insightful perspective on the German, Polish and Portuguese strategies for the hydrogen economy and how it contrasts and aligns with the Hydrogen Accelerator Plan outlined by the European Commission in the RePowerEU Plan. Here is a selection of key insights that we gathered:
EU WORKSHOP – Member States’ Perspective on the EU Hydrogen Accelerator
#attendees: 58
#panellists: 5
Project
EUKI funded project that partners 3 European NGOs – Instrat Foundation (Poland), Germanwatch (Germany) and ZERO (Portugal) focused on engaging civil society in the process of making European hydrogen infrastructure green, fair, and sustainable.
© Green(ing) H2 EU Workshop: Member States’ Perspective on the EU Hydrogen Accelerator
Germanwatch, Instrat Foundation and ZERO would like to thank all panellists for their contributions to the discussion and all attendees for their valuable questions.
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Green(ing) H2: National Workshops
Green(ing) H2 is a European Climate Initiative (EUKI) funded project that partners 3 European NGOs – Instrat Foundation (Poland), Germanwatch (Germany) and ZERO (Portugal) focused on promoting green Hydrogen to achieve climate neutrality by engaging civil society to make Europe’s H2 infrastructure green, fair and sustainable.
Decarbonisation: How the Czech industry thinks about Sustainable Finance
Karel Voldřich is Head of Industry Decarbonisation at the International Sustainable Finance Centre (ISFC) and we talked to him about the decarbonisation of the Czech heavy industry, their work as an NGO and the importance of networking.
“Maybe we can benefit from that in the future”
At the #EUKICON22 Štěpán Vizi talked to us about the consequences of the energy crisis in the Czech Republic and how the government and new Czech EU Council presidency are coping with it. He is also talking to us about the role of EUKI in Central Eastern European countries and his Czech German podcast “Karbon”.
“It’s a huge volume of electricity generated on the roofs of people”
At the #EUKICON22 Ada Ámon talked to us about the consequences of the energy crisis in Hungary and how the hungarian people and the government are coping with it. She also talks to us about the huge solar potential of the roofs in Budapest and the first Solar map that she and her team created in Budapest.
EUKI project “EUCENA – European Citizen Energy Academy” published a new best practice guide with inspiring examples of community energy initiatives in the Balkan region to animate more citizens to follow their path.
“We expect a harsh winter”
Interview
© GIZ / Paul Hahn
by GIZ/EUKI, Visar Azemi
“We expect a harsh winter”
Visar Azemi is the Executive Director at Balkan Green Foundation, partner organisation for the EUKI project Green Rural Deal in Kosovo. His engagements are focused on elevating the debate on sustainable development in the Western Balkans with a focus on renewable energy development, energy market integration and circular economy. We met him at the EUKI conference 2022 on 20 September in Berlin.
Mr. Azemi what’s your impression of the conference?
Visar Azemi: It was my 1st time attending the EUKI conference and I am very happy to be here with you all and learn more about EUKI and German Government’s engagement in shifting the narrative towards the energy transition. I am impressed by the discussions as well as by the messages we received from the Ministry (Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, BMWK). I hope that the German government will remain committed in the Western Balkans for a long time. As we are aspiring to join the EU, this engagement is of immense importance as a preparatory effort for EU accession.
How is the energy crisis influencing your home country Kosovo? How is it coping with the consequences?
Visar Azemi: Our country depends on the energy production that comes from lignite-fired power plants that have exceeded their lifespan and are very polluting. The fact is that the baseload capacity and the peaking demand for energy are in disproportion, so we are not producing enough energy to fulfill the peak demand. During wintertime, consumption doubles. People use electricity for heating purposes and the need for thermal energy increases immensely. We are working to fill in the gap with renewables, but we are still far away.
Since we are not able to provide enough energy with our domestic production, we will either have to import electricity with these rocket-high prices or face blackouts. The government institutions have not proposed any practical steps to face the energy crisis, nor to provide any tangible solutions for thermal energy. So, with the rising energy prices, we expect a harsh winter.
EUKI is playing an important role by empowering organisations to accelerate climate action. The empowerment and the ownership which remains with the local communities or organizations is very important.
What challenges are you and your organisation (Balkan Green Foundation) facing because of the energy crisis?
Visar Azemi: The problem we are facing during the winter months is with thermal energy, since people use electricity for heating purposes. The price of wood pellets[1] has increased to more than double and there were no actions taken by the government institutions to provide incentives to use heat pumps or other alternatives, so people can afford them. The only heating option for many households would be electricity, which will drain the energy system and inevitably create troubles.
As part of the project Green Rural Deal you enable residents of rural Kosovo to co-create projects, tools, and instruments that support the sustainable development of their home regions.
Visar Azemi: We are happy that we were able to link the political context with what’s happening on around the world in terms of sustainable development. We selected a rural area in Kosovo, which is sort of abandoned and far away from the capital city. We saw a good spirit of the previous mayor who wanted to do something above and beyond his mandate. Shaping policies towards the green agenda and investments in renewables was something remarkable.
How would you assess the EUKI funding, implementation, and networking experience compared to other funding instruments you know?
Visar Azemi: EUKI is playing an important role by empowering organizations to accelerate climate action. The empowerment and the ownership which remains with the local communities or organizations is very important. In the past we had lots of money delivered in the Western Balkan region, but the agenda was driven by the donors. Now the case is, that we, together with EUKI and the local organizations are forming the agenda, making sure that the money is being used in the right place and for the right purposes.
Mr. Azemi, thank you very much for this interview.
[1] Pellets are often used from households as an efficient mean of heating
EUKI Interview: Breaking Ground in Rural Poland
We spoke with Rafal Serafin and Piotr Banaszuk from EUKI project “RENALDO”. The project advances the market penetration of the collective prosumer model in rural Poland.