On Wednesday, 21 June CEE Bankwatch Network co-organised an event together with Euroheat and Power, with the title ‘Fast-tracking the clean heat transition: leveraging private capital’. The session was held as part of the European Sustainability Energy Week organised by the European Commission, and took place at the Residence Palace, in Brussels.
The focus of the event was to highlight best practices in private and public finance to accelerate the decarbonisation of district heating and cooling networks across the EU and at the national level. The heating and cooling sector is a significant source of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG), and yet only 30 per cent of its share is provided by renewable energy sources. District heating can have an essential role in reducing GHG in the heating and cooling sector and discussions on how private financing could be upscaled in the heating sectors were the central focus during the event.
The event featured a diverse group of participants from the European Institutions, civil society organisations, and business associations discussing the attractiveness of renewable heating and cooling investments using private capital and public finance. Gender balance was ensured among both speakers and participants.
The panel touched upon several issues related to district heating and their transformation, from the importance of better financial schemes for fossil-free district heating system investments from public banks to how to integrate more private capital to accelerate this move. In this regard, panellists agreed that a definition and target of efficient district heating would be helpful in supporting the transition to renewables in the sector.
After the interventions of the panellists, the session was opened to the questions from the audience online and in-person.
The full video of the event can be found here:
