• Bosnia and Herzegovina is the only country in the Balkan region for which the Green Climate Fund allocated funds.
• The total value of the project, including co-financing from a range of sources, such as the entity environmental funds, entity and municipal budgets, and international organizations, amounts to US$125 million.

The Government of Bosnia and Herzegovina launched a new climate change project this week to offset over 2 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions and support climate change mitigation processes.

Supported by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and financed through the Green Climate Fund (GCF) with a US$17.3 million grant, the project will be implemented in partnership with government institutions on all levels.

The multi-year project will focus on “Scaling-up Investment in Low-Carbon Public Buildings.” This is an essential component of the nation’s Nationally Determined Contributions to the Paris Agreement as well as goals for low-carbon, climate-resilient development.

Assistant Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of Bosnia and Herzegovina Admir Softić said project will contribute to meeting commitments by Bosnia and Herzegovina to prepare the Energy Climate Plan 2020 – 2030.

“This is a commitment resulting from the Energy Community Treaty incorporating the Paris Agreement, which has an impact on reduction of CO₂ emissions,” said Softić, pointing out that the project is designed to systematically address the challenges of climate change.

At the Inception Workshop held in Sarajevo, the project was presented to the representatives of the state, entity, cantonal and municipal level authorities.

 “The project is funded by the Green Climate Fund and US$105.2 million in co-financing comes from different levels of government in Bosnia and Herzegovina,“ said Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, UNDP Deputy Resident Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Under the eight-year project, a total of US$125 million will be used for public buildings retrofitting aimed at improving energy efficiency and comfort levels for 150,000 beneficiaries in these buildings.

Over 70 percent of Bosnia-Herzegovina’s public buildings were designed and built over 30 years ago with no consideration for their energy performance. In addition, over 80 percent of public sector buildings are currently using fossil fuels (coal, light fuel oil and natural gas), thus contributing to pollution and adverse climate change.

The activities will be performed to retrofit 430 public buildings. “It is worth investing in public building energy retrofit, the return on investment is achieved within three to five years,” added Khoshmukhamedov.

“Our Ministry, as a focal point for the Green Climate Fund and United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change for Bosnia and Herzegovina, is very pleased that the Green Climate Fund has recognized our efforts and contribution to date in combating climate change, by approving the funds for energy retrofit of public buildings,” said Assistant Minister of Spatial Planning, Civil Engineering and Ecology of Republika Srpska, Miloš Jokić.

Director of the Environmental Protection Fund of the Federation of BiH, Fuad Čibukčić, emphasised very constructive cooperation with UNDP, as well as with other partners and reflected on the results achieved in energy efficiency field.

“We created the Energy Management Information System (EMIS) that covers around  3,500 public facilities and successfully implemented energy efficiency measures in more than 100 public buildings, mostly healthcare institutions, kindergartens and schools. It should be also noted that we managed to achieve 55 percent of energy savings in these facilities. A revolving fund was established with zero interest rates, which provides support to such institutions, as well as to the industry,” said Čibukčić.

The Green Climate Fund-financed project will be implemented in the partnership with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of B&H, Ministry of Spatial Planning, Civil Engineering and Ecology of Republika Srpska, Federal Ministry of Physical Planning, Environmental Fund of Federation of B&H and Environmental Protection, and Energy Efficiency Fund of Republika Srpska.

Please check the following link for more photos  http://bit.ly/GCFProjectsinBiH