Mid-term Conference in Zagreb

Published: Thursday, 03 October 2019

On October 16, an international conference titled Innovative Financing for Sustainable Energy Projects was held at ZICER as part of the E-FIX Project. 14 experts who came from 6 partner countries shared their knowledge, challenges and experiences. The following partners took on a role of conference hosts: Zagreb Innovation Centre – ZICER and North-West Croatia Regional Energy Agency – REGEA. 

The conference was opened by the Assistant Head of Office for Economy, Energetics and Environment Protection, City of Zagreb Nera Pavić, who emphasized that the City of Zagreb is very much focused on the conference’s main topics.

The conference was opened by the Assistant Head of Office for Economy, Energetics and Environment Protection, City of Zagreb Nera Pavić, who emphasized that the City of Zagreb is very much focused on the conference’s main topics. “The City of Zagreb continuously works on improving energy efficiency and promoting renewable energy sources, so I believe that sharing international experiences  will lead to greater efficiency and contribute to increasing both public and private investments through innovative financing mechanisms”, stated Ms Pavić.

The project coordinator, Mr Karner Andreas, introduced to the participants the core of the project. The panel discussions that followed emphasized the need to educate the private and public sectors on how to finance and implement energy efficiency projects and touched upon public-private partnerships, promotion of the private investments, energy performance contracts and leasing. The second panel discussion focused on crowdfunding as an alternative way of financial supporting projects.

During the conference, participants were introduced to EU legislative frameworks and funding opportunities for innovative projects through a lecture of Stavros Stamatoukos from the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (EASME), European Commission. The conference also launched an E-FIX platform for ambassadors to promote and implement the E-FIX approach. The end of the conference was reserved for presenting good practices from six European countries.

 

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