To celebrate the programme’s success, a regional Greening the Western Balkans conference was held earlier this week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, attended by almost 200 stakeholders from the six Western Balkans countries, including representatives of partner financial institutions (PFIs), regulators and donor communities.

EBRD representatives noted that these measures had reduced CO2 emissions by more than 25,000 tonnes a year and were producing annual energy savings of 70,000 MWh. The conference featured insightful panel discussions and the sharing of success stories, with a view to further accelerating the transition to a green economy in the coming years.

Following the successful roll-out of the GEFF programme in the Western Balkans, and in light of the growing interest in energy efficiency measures, the financing capacity of the Western Balkans GEFF has been increased from 135 million to 415 million euros, with plans to expand the programme further in the future.

That funding will be channeled through local PFIs, allowing even more households in the region to improve the energy efficiency of their homes.

The Western Balkans GEFF was established by the EBRD with the support of donors and provides specialist credit lines for green investment by the residential sector (individual residents, housing collectives and housing management companies, service providers, producers and vendors of green technologies and materials, and construction companies) and the public sector in a gender-responsive way.

The Western Balkans GEFF is supported by investment incentives and technical cooperation, and is funded by the governments of Austria and Japan, the European Union through the Western Balkans Investment Framework (WBIF), and Austria and Switzerland through the High-Impact Partnership on Climate Action (HIPCA). The HIPCA is supported by Austria, Canada, Finland, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, TaiwanICDF and the United Kingdom.

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