Vision & mission

 

Municipalities and local authorities play a key role in a sustainable European energy transition. They have a tremendous potential to build comprehensive sustainable energy investment programs (i.e. investments in energy efficiency and renewable energy). They also play a key role in pooling smaller projects into larger investment portfolios and in mobilising the significant financial resources required for the energy transition.

 

Although the potential is immense, there are fundamental obstacles. In many cases, there is a lack of credible, robust and sufficiently mature investment concepts (including a detailed description of the planned investment project and of the promoter(s) and local stakeholders, a legal analysis, an economic and financial analysis and the investment roadmap). However, such investment concepts are an initial prerequisite for access to different sources of funding.

 

In this context, a new pan-European City Facility is set up under the Horizon 2020 Framework Programme for Research and Innovation of the European Union: tailor-made, rapid and simplified financial support (in the form of EUR 60,000 lump sums) and related services will be provided to some 200 cities and municipalities to enable them to develop relevant investment concepts.

 

The Facility addresses two fundamental barriers for sustainable energy investments:

 

• Limited financial and legal capacity of local authorities to transform their long-term energy and climate strategies (e.g. SEAPs, SECAPs etc.) into appropriate investment concepts.
• Lack of aggregation of fragmented smaller projects (for example in the building sector) and thus lack of attractiveness for the financial sector.

The resulting investment concepts will represent an initial step towards a fully-fledged business and financial plan and – in this way - facilitate the subsequent mobilization of (local) investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. Sources of funding may come from the private sector, but also from other EU-funded instruments such as the European Fund for Strategic Investments, the European Structural and Investment Funds, various Project Development Assistance facilities, such as the ELENA facility of the European Investment Bank, or various national investment platforms.

 

The vision of the EUCF is one where European cities have their say on how the EUCF financial and technical support will be used to meet their needs and help them overcome the barriers they face in financing and implementing their ambitious energy and climate strategies.

 

We would like to encourage cities to be as bold as possible in addressing the fundamental changes that are needed to accelerate the energy transition.

 

Governance

 

The EUCF is governed by the Strategic Board (Board), operated by the Core Management Team (CMT) and advised by the Investment Advisors. These bodies have clearly assigned responsibilities that guarantee strategic steering of the initiative (assuring that cities have a say on how the financial support will best meet their financial needs), independent and transparent selection process and support for EUCF beneficiaries as well as the relevance of the investment concepts for investors and financiers. Moreover, Country Experts are appointed for each EU Member State and act as a ‘prolonged arm’ of the CMT to support the EUCF applicants and beneficiaries at local level and in their national language.

 

The work of the EUCF

 

The EUCF design allows for decentral and tailor-made support to small- and medium-sized municipalities through country experts, national networks of local authorities and activities across Europe.

 

For each EU Member State, the consortium appointed a country expert to support cities in their ‘city journey’ and the core management team in the smooth EUCF operation.

 

Country experts have been selected based on their proven technical and financial competences and national/local working experience in the field of energy and climate investments, their existing relations and contacts with cities.

 

One national network of local authorities per EU Member State has been selected to reach out to potential EUCF beneficiaries in the country and to promote the EUCF's activities in a country-specific manner.

 

In order to allow for monitoring of the delivered and implemented investment concepts and to ensure efficient exploitation and replication based on a regional approach, strong replication and capacity building activities, called EU added value, will take place during the EUCF´s second phase (year 3-4). This will allow supporting the beneficiaries in giving the step forward towards the financing of their sustainable energy projects.

 

Overcoming financial barriers

 

European local authorities and their groupings have made great commitments to significantly reduce their energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. However, when trying to realize their ambitious climate and energy roadmaps, they often face financial constraints, as well as a lack of capacity to access the right financing.

 

Europe´s sustainable energy transition is driven by its municipalities, local authorities and their groupings. With tremendous potential to build comprehensive sustainable energy investment programmes, they play a key role in pooling smaller projects into larger investment portfolios and in mobilizing significant financial resources for the energy transition. The EUCF will bridge the gap and unlock the local potential to enable municipalities in Europe to develop relevant investment concepts.

 

The EUCF addresses these two fundamental barriers to fill this gap:

 

• Limited financial and legal capacity of local authorities to transform their long-term energy and climate strategies (e.g. SEAPs, SECAPs etc.) into appropriate investment concepts.
• Lack of aggregation of fragmented smaller projects (for example in the building sector) and thus lack of attractiveness for the financial sector.

How does the EUCF help overcoming barriers?

 

Limited human resources and capacities:

 

• Simple and fast-track application process 
• Strong technical and financial expertise and support in local language
• Easy access to pool of EU experts, investors, financiers and other key actors
• Benchmarks and standardised investment packages

Lack of experience in using innovative financial instruments and developing ‘bankable’ sustainable energy projects and investment packages:

 

• Capacity building on blending of funds, innovative financing schemes, procurement, climate mainstreaming in municipal budgets, etc.
• Communities of practice, access to experienced experts
• Financial support to develop investment concepts and to prepare sustainable energy projects for financing

Reluctance to invest in project preparation:

 

• Financial support for pre-feasibility studies, in-house and external expertise
• The lack of experience with developing investment packages and pooling sustainable energy projects:
• Capacity building on prioritisation of investments
• Supporting multi-level governance approach at the pre-application stage

Partners: 

 

• ENERGY CITIES/ENERGIE-CITES ASSOCIATION
• CLIMATE ALLIANCE - KLIMA-BUENDNIS - ALIANZA DEL CLIMA e.V.
• FEDERATION EUROPEENNE DES AGENCES ET DES REGIONS POUR L'ENERGIE ET L'ENVIRONNEMENT
• ADELPHI RESEARCH GEMEINNUTZIGE GMBH
• ENVIROS SRO

Start date: 1/08/2019 - End date: 31/09/2023