In the target countries of the E-FIX project of Central and South Eastern Europe and the assoc. countries AM and GE, there is considerable idle potential for EE and REN products and services. Both potential energy project developers and financers face barriers regarding the accurate assessment of energy project feasibility and achieving investment security. An innovative Energy FInancing miX is needed in order to access new sources of finance and facilitate an increased implementation of sustainable energy projects. The E-FIX project will trigger private investments using a mix of inn. financing mechanisms, to be specific: credit lines for energy performance contracting, crowdfunding models and leasing models for EE and REN projects. The overall objective of the E-FIX project is to prepare the European market – with a focus on countries of various EU enlargement rounds, as well as markets of countries, which have recently reached EU association status – for the intensified usage of innovative financing mechanisms in the energy sector in order to facilitate the increase of investments in energy projects and services. The E-FIX project will initiate a comprehensive roll-out of inn. energy financing mechanisms in the 6 partner countries (PL, CZ, AT, HR, AM and GE). The 3-dimensional roll-out will cover capacity building, strategy development and piloting of model solutions. The E-FIX project will result in increased investments in sustainable energy projects in the partner countries as well as lay the groundwork for better-informed and equipped stakeholders. The trainings of these stakeholders will provide them with the capacity to act as E-FIX Ambassadors, multiplicators to promote and implement the E-FIX approach. On a larger scale, the E-FIX approach will be disseminated EU-wide, activating dormant private finance thereby contributing to the general growth of the EU markets of energy technology and services as one step into the direction of a low carbon economy.

REMARKABLE will support local leaders to deliver a step change in progress towards carbon neutrality by 2050 in 7 regions across Europe. REMARKABLE will establish, by 2024, a network of 320 Current and Emerging Climate Leaders who, through their actions and inspiration, will drive their municipalities, public authorities, communities and regions to transform their approaches from ones focused on energy efficiency/renewables to ones focused on the strategic goal of climate neutrality by 2050. REMARKABLE will build new leadership capacity in 120 actors from 7 countries in Europe though a Climate Leadership Programme (CLP). The CLP will be inspired by ethnographic research and will be designed with and for leaders across public authorities. The REMARKABLE CLP will also facilitate the creation of 60 Roadmaps for public authorities aiming at Climate Neutrality by 2050. These Roadmaps will allow our Climate Leaders to translate strategic aspirations and policy ambitions into concrete and disruptive far reaching measures stimulating €300m investment by 2030. A Climate and Energy Check Tool will be developed and tested along with a Climate Neutrality Roadmap Guide. The 7 Regional Energy Agencies involved in REMARKABLE will develop 14 new services to expand their roles as change agents in the Clean Energy Transition and Climate Neutrality challenges. Climate Neutrality Training, Climate One Stop Shops, Financing Solutions are targeted as potential services. REMARKABLE will exploit its outcomes and results through the creation of an EU Climate Leaders Circle, reaching up to 320 members by 2024 including 30 from 7 Observer Regions/Countries. An innovative Climate Neutrality Challenge will be organised for Young Climate Leaders. The REMARKABLE Circle will create synergies with existing networks and initiatives e.g. COMO, ManagEnergy to support and enhance their impacts with the ambition of mobilising 10,000 stakeholders by 2030 (2,000 by 2024)

Culture heritage - tangible and intangible - can be understood as a reservoir of creativity, well-being, identity and knowledge that is useful to overcome present and future challenges. The cultural value attributed to our traditional and historic buildings denotes our identity as communities and individuals, playing an important role both in urban and rural domains. The historic building stock is heterogeneous and consists of buildings from different time periods, constructed in different ways with different materials, and also follows different architectural ideals. This situation implies that there is a need for differentiated renovation strategies and targeted policies along the heritage built environment’s life cycle that promote energy efficiency, sustainability, inclusiveness and resource efficiency, while preserving cultural heritage value. The overall vision of INHERIT is to create a systematic methodology, accompanied by leading-edge Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), such as Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and (big) data analytics, and associated social/behavioural practices, towards sustainable, inclusive and resource-efficient CH solutions. INHERIT will enable socially innovative and economic viable interventions at different urban levels (buildings, city/neighbourhood), covering all relevant aspects of the heritage-built environment’s life cycle: (1) Design and renovation; (2) Monitoring, operation and management; (3) Preservation and maintenance. The solutions will be tested in 8 cultural heritage sites across EU. In addition, INHERIT will create a capacity building programme addressing heritage operators and stakeholders (including large companies, SMEs, public authorities, research organisations and citizens) to support sustainable CH with particular focus on NEB community and projects and will work on policy recommendations towards sustainable heritage.

Climate change is a global problem and to solve it, we need to start on local level. To effectively implement energy and climate policies, concerted and strong action is needed. Municipalities often have ambitious goals and political will, but lack the harmonized, interdepartmental and long-term structures to successfully implement their climate and energy strategies and thus reach their goal. This is the starting point for the project, which focuses on capacity building in municipalities. By introducing the quality management and certification programme European Energy Award (eea) in Belgium, Croatia, Greece and Poland, the project aims at setting up the necessary structures in municipalities. During the project, 30 pilot municipalities will further develop and implement their climate and energy strategy by using the eea standards and criteria catalogue. External advisors will guide and monitor the continuous progress. Its certification will ensure that municipalities implement their climate and energy plans to high quality standards. The certification process is ongoing and ensures that municipal climate action progress. Their experiences and successes will pave the way for more municipalities in the target regions to join the eea. IMPLEMENT’s objective is to set up the necessary structures for a long-term roll-out of the eea in the partner countries. Partners will translate and adapt all eea tools to national context, receive adequate training to become skilled eea advisors, able to advice and guide pilot municipalities through the eea process. The consortium together with regional authorities will develop, based on experience exchange with eea expert regions, feasibility studies and business plans, tailor-made support schemes for the participating countries.

REGILIENCE aims to foster the adoption and wide dissemination of regional climate resilience pathways, following a demand-driven approach and bearing in mind the expertise and knowledge acquired, as well as the solutions available from Innovation Packages and other sources. It will implement the LC-GD-1-3-2020 RIA project results on the Innovation Packages. REGILIENCE will provide coordination by developing a needs survey covering the 50 most vulnerable regions in the EU, which will be shared and matched with Innovation Package projects, 2 citizen surveys and the development of an indicator set for regional resilience, including its testing. We will furthermore review and foster synergies of 30 online platforms to improve their performance and usability for regions and communities. In terms of support, REGILIENCE will provide wide dissemination of the solutions and approaches within networks, regional authorities and key stakeholders, including civil society organisations and citizens. Overall, we plan for almost 700 specific activities with an estimated audience of 100,000 individuals, including 8 large network events, 52 workshops/webinars, 30 twinning, 300 helpdesk, 10 testing, and 40 media activities, amongst others. These aim to share experiences, learn from failure, provide guidance and disseminate knowledge and tools which will be developed by REGILIENCE, such as the Resilience Fundamentals Course, a citizen Resilience Scan Tool, information about resilience funding and financing, including recommendations for the inclusion of climate resilience in the national and regional plans for the EU Recovery Package and the Multiannual Finance Framework, on overcoming barriers and obstacles, maladaptation and the running of 10 tests for innovative public-private partnership approaches. Complementary to wide dissemination, we plan to facilitate the replication of Innovation Packages in 10 additional vulnerable and low-capacity regions.