23.01.2017
Climate Alliance city Hasselt closes EU Commission event on energy efficiency
Some 400 key stakeholders from cities, regions, industry and the financial sector gathered in Brussels on 18 and 19 January to discuss financing energy efficiency at the operational level. Joost Venken, Deputy Mayor of Hasselt (Belgium), represented Climate Alliance in his closing of the event alongside Marie Donnelly of the European Commission and other senior representatives. His message: engage local decision makers as well as local populations in energy saving programmes and provide support for smaller municipalities to get their sustainable energy investment projects off the ground.
The EU Commission event featured a lively platform for exchange on topics including the European Commission's recent communication on Clean Energy for All Europeans. The communication supports the energy efficiency first principle and establishes a Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative, which helps make private financing for sustainable energy in buildings more readily accessible.
A parallel session during the event was dedicated to Climate Alliance's work with innovative financing models to help local authorities take on large-scale and deep energy efficiency retrofits via the CITYnvest project.
Further information, recordings and presentations of the event
