Financing energy efficiency: Vojvodina is looking for investors

Organized by the European Commission, a workshop on financing energy efficiency was held in Brussels on 30 March 2017, which gathered the most eminent stakeholdrs from all over Europe. In addition to a number of representatives of the European Union, the event was attended by representatives of almost all the member countries, Deutsche Bank, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and the largest companies in the field of energy efficiency. The workshop was also attended by the representatives of Vojvodina, led by Mr. Srđan Mačkić, Head of Vojvodina European Office in Brussels.

Mr. Mačkić used the opportunity to exchange impressions and contacts with various stakeholders, and an agreement on future cooperation with the Climate Protection and Energy Agency of Baden-Württemberg (Klimaschutz- und Energieagentur Baden-Württemberg GmbH) was made. Taking into account the current partnerships between the AP Vojvodina and Baden-Württemberg, an agreement was made with Mr Rüdiger Lohse, representative of the agency,  to organize a meeting in order to link the local self-governments in Vojvodina and interested investors from that German state in the field of energy efficiency.

In addition, Mr. Mačkić met with Harijs Švarc, director of the Latvian Baltic Agency for Energy Efficiency, with whom further communication was agreed with the aim of finding the best solutions for financing the reconstruction of public and private facilities in Vojvodina. Mr. Mačkić, Head of Vojvodina European Office in Brussels, put particular emphasis on the model and experience of the Baltic countries as very useful given that more than 70% of the facilites in the Baltics and in Serbia were energy inefficient.

Financing energy efficiency is very convenient because it means a model in which the current full costs are converted into direct investment.