Evolving Regions at the Covenant of Mayors

5. July 2021

On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, a delegation from the LIFE project Evolving Regions presented the project at the “Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum – energy efficiency finance market place“. Organized by the European Commission’s Directorates-Generals for Energy and Climate Action and the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA), a total of 44 projects were presented to representatives of the Covenant of Mayors Initiative, investors and representatives of the European Commission over two days.

The Covernant of Mayors Initiative is an association of more than 7000 local and regional governments in 57 countries, founded in 2008, which deal with energy and climate according to the bottom-up principle. The aim is to network local authorities that voluntarily commit to achieving or even exceeding the EU’s climate and energy targets.

The project Evolving Regions was represented in the focal point “Public investments in innovations for adaptation to climate change” by the project coordinator Jürgen Schultze, the regional promoter from the district of Minden-Lübbecke Leona Aileen Eichel and Thomas Kull from NRW.Bank. They could use the opportunity to present the project to relevant representatives from different sectors related to climate adaptation and energy efficiency financing. Under the title “Evolving Regions – Social innovation for targeted investments in regional climate action”, the path towards a climate resilient region, the roadmapping approach, the financial scaling tools and the first implementation in the Minden-Lübbecke region were presented.

The Covenant of Mayors Investment Forum, attended by a total of 500 people, was divided according to 5 different focus areas: Driving Change Locally, Financing Energy Efficiency in the Public Sector, Renovation Wave: Boosting Investment in Home Renovation, Innovative Solutions for Financing Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, and Public Investment in Climate Change Adaptation Innovations.

For more information, and to view the presentation and recording of the event, click here. The presentation can also be seen in this video: