Financing and Developing Sustainable Energy Action Plans

• Workshop Programme and Presentations [EN / HR]

Some 35 participants, primarily from municipalities across the country and local and regional energy agencies, attended to hear a variety of presentations from local and international experts. The workshop was kindly hosted by the City of Zagreb. Based on the initial local needs analysis, the ManagEnergy workshop focused on three areas:

1. Developing Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) within the Covenant of Mayors initiative,
2. Understanding the impact of the transition to Structural and Cohesion Funds for Croatian municipalities investing in sustainable energy, and
3. Utilising alternative financing mechanisms for energy investments

The presentations on SEAP development included a detailed presentation of the City of Zagreb’s work to date, as well as experience and good practice from a number of other EU Countries, including Denmark and Poland. Participants were especially interested in preparing for Structural and Cohesion Funds (SCF) funding and engaged in lively discussions on the challenges of financing sustainable energy actions for public buildings.

The presentations addressed the core principles and success factors of ESCOs, as well as the issues surrounding EIB loans and regional revolving funds. Another of the presentations looked at the lessons learned from an Intelligent Energy Europe Project which used a more systemic approach to securing financing for energy efficiency investments in public buildings. Workshop participants also benefited from presentations from the Ministry of Economy, Labour and Entrepreneurship and the Energy Efficiency and Environmental Protection Fund on the transition from Instrument for Pre-Accession Funds funding to Structural and Cohesion Funds.

The ManagEnergy workshop was also a catalyst and platform for the signing of the new Croatian Covenant of Mayors Club, with the charter of the Club being signed by an impressive 19 founding cities and 5 founding regional and local energy agencies. This new club will place an important emphasis on capacity development among these cities and local energy agencies.