The call for ideas will be launched at the 3rd European Climate Initiative (EUKI) Networking Conference.

On 23 November, at EUKI’s annual conference, Germany’s Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) will launch a call for project ideas that support implementation of an ambitious climate action policy in Europe. Non-profit organisations from civil society, academia, the private sector, education and municipalities will have until 12 January 2022 to submit their proposals via the EUKI website. This is the sixth call for ideas and is open to interested parties from all EU Member States but with a particular regional focus on central, eastern and southern Europe and the Baltic states.

Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze said: ‘With our European Climate Initiative, we are making a contribution to achieving the EU's climate targets. EUKI is promoting cross-border climate action in Europe. It also works to achieve the EU’s long-term climate targets by funding a wide range of activities at local, regional and national level. In some European regions, for example, we are supporting the renaturation of peatlands and the socially sustainable phase-out of coal. And we support awareness-raising and educational work in the areas of sustainability and climate action, working particularly with European schoolchildren. But EUKI projects also offer quick solutions for creating liveable cities, for example by boosting cycling.’

Since it was launched in 2017, EUKI has become a successful funding programme with EUR 62.4 million in financing from BMU. To date, it has supported 157 projects in 25 EU Member States and six countries in the western Balkans. It networks more than 300 organisations, municipalities, schools, public authorities and universities involved in implementing climate action targets across the EU. And the EUKI Academy enables them to deepen their expertise in the area of climate policy and enhance their institutional capacity, giving them a clearer voice in the climate debate.

Since 2019, EUKI has also supported projects in EU candidate countries in the western Balkans. Up to EUR 1 million is available for individual projects with a term of up to 28 months and representing eight key topics: climate policy; energy; buildings and municipalities; mobility; agriculture, soils and forestry; awareness; climate-aligned finance; and sustainable economy.

Further information about the call for ideas will be available on the EUKI website from 23 November.

Annual EUKI Networking Conference

On behalf of BMU, EUKI is inviting climate policy experts involved in EUKI-funded projects to a discussion and networking event on 23 and 24 November 2021. The 3rd EUKI Networking Conference, is being held under the theme ‘Fit for Climate Action - Together for a Climate-Neutral Europe’. The event was cancelled last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this year’s conference will take place online for the first time.

EUKI offers its community a platform for sharing experiences and, particularly, know-how in the area of climate policy and specialist topics. The annual EUKI Networking Conference provides a space for networking within Europe and discussion on issues such as ‘green entrepreneurship as a driver of change’ or ‘vertical communication and cooperation for climate action measures’. Participants also have an opportunity to share views and experiences about the role of social and ecological transformation in their own country in small groups and informal spaces.

Yvon Slingenberg, Director in DG Climate Action of the European Commission, has been invited to give a keynote briefing on the European policy framework. And the Mayor of the Albanian capital Tirana, Erion Veliaj, will show how climate transformation can work in Europe and what it needs by way of ideas, approaches and implementation.

Previous EUKI projects have, for example, helped shape national guidelines for climate action legislation in Poland. In Latvia, a EUKI project analysed the investment plans and capital-raising opportunities of the timber processing industry, while another project did the same for district heating in the Czech Republic. Their findings fed into planning and revising measures to implement the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP) of the two countries. And as part of a project implemented by WWF and entitled ‘Regions Beyond Coal’, a powerful working group of European mayors (the Forum of Mayors on a just transition) has been set up.

Further information on EUKI and its projects:

Website: www.euki.de/en

Twitter: @EUKI_Climate

Facebook: @EUKIClimate

Youtube: European Climate Initiative

Further information on the EUKI Networking Conference:

EUKI Networking Conference 2021