EBRD, EU and GEF promote climate change mitigation in Ukraine
FINTECC programme to increase efficiency of local businesses with new technologies
Ukraine has become the newest member of the EBRD’s Finance and Technology Transfer Centre for Climate Change (FINTECC) programme designed to transfer technology in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It successfully operates in 14 countries where the EBRD invests. The three-year programme is supported by US$ $7 million grant funding from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and a €4 million grant from the EU’s Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF). FINTECC will help Ukrainian businesses invest in the best available technologies, which will lead to a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. These may include energy, materials and water efficiency technologies as well as renewable energy technologies not yet available or rare in Ukraine. FINTECC resources will be available to the existing local clients of the Bank planning to introduce modern climate technologies. Under the programme, individual companies may receive grant funding covering up to 25 per cent of the cost of a new technology and capped at US$ 1 million. As a result, companies are expected to become more resource efficient and should significantly reduce their energy-related costs. Terry McCallion, Director of the EBRD’s Energy Efficiency and Climate Change team, said: «There is an increasing demand in Ukraine for cost-effective energy efficiency solutions. We designed FINTECC to accelerate the deployment of advanced resource efficiency technologies like water management, high efficiency biomass boilers, waste and wastewater treatment and many others and to support the development of their supply. With FINTECC we are hoping to help a range of businesses in Ukraine to achieve cost and environmental savings through the installation of the right technologies.» Walter Tretton, Head of Energy, Climate, Transport and Environment section at the EU Delegation to Ukraine, stated, «I welcome the launch of FINTECC in Ukraine. It will help Ukrainian companies to modernize and have access to state-of-the art technologies that limit greenhouse gas emissions. This is why the European Union supports this project financially with a €4.1 million grant for technical assistance. It fits perfectly into the European Union’s overall assistance to Ukraine which aims to enable Ukraine, and the Ukrainian economy, to become less energy intensive and more climate-friendly.» Grants available under FINTECC will help to understand the technical and financial feasibility of implementing climate technologies and help conduct the necessary research, certification, testing and registration of modern energy efficient solutions in Ukraine. They will also provide policy support to the Ukrainian government, especially in adopting elements of the EU Eco-Design Directive. The EBRD is the largest international financial investor in Ukraine. As of 1 January 2016, the Bank had a total cumulative commitment of approximately €12 billion in 355 projects throughout the country.
The EBRD is a multilateral bank committed to the development of market-oriented economies and the promotion of private and entrepreneurial initiative in more than 30 countries from Morocco to Mongolia and from Estonia to Egypt. The Bank is owned by 64 countries, the EU and the EIB. Follow us on the web, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. FINTECC is the main technology transfer programme of the EBRD in the area of climate change mitigation and adaptation. It is currently operational in early transition countries and the SEMED region. As of January 2016, 16 EBRD Sustainable Resource Initiative investment projects worth over US$ 39 million and incorporating FINTECC grants of up to US$ 3.1 million had been signed. They will lead to approximately 168,000 tonnes of CO2 savings over 10 years. The Global Environment Facility (GEF) provides grants for climate technology projects, acting as a partnership between 183 countries, international institutions, non-governmental organisations and the private sector. The European Union is made up of 28 countries and the people of those countries. It is a unique political and economic partnership founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, equality, the rule of law and human rights. Over more than fifty years we have created a zone of peace, democracy, stability and prosperity on our continent while maintaining cultural diversity, tolerance and individual freedoms. The EU looks to share its values and achievements with neighbouring countries and peoples and those farther afield. The EU is both currently and since the country’s independence the biggest international donor to Ukraine.
