Under the Agreement for Improving Energy Efficiency, which the Minister of Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection of the Sarajevo Canton, Damir Filipovic, and Resident Representative a.i. of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in BiH, Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov, have signed today, energy retrofits will be undertaken in 15 public institution facilities in the Sarajevo Canton.

The agreement has been signed in the presence of the Sarajevo Canton Prime Minister, Edin Forto, the Cabinet ministers, Head of Swedish Development Cooperation Marie Bergström and heads and representatives of the municipalities and institutions where energy efficiency work will be done.  

The funds for energy retrofitting in the amount of BAM 2.6 million are provided by the Government of Sweden, the Sarajevo Canton Ministry of Spatial Planning, Construction and Environmental Protection, and Ministries of the Interior, Culture and Sports, Labor, Social Welfare, Displaced Persons and Refugees, the municipalities of Ilijas and Vogosca, the public institution “Children of Sarajevo” and the Fund for Environmental Protection of the Federation of BiH. The works will be done by the UNDP.

“This is the first step undertaken by my Cabinet to implement the energy efficiency project. Right now, we are agreeing on doing an energy efficiency retrofit on 15 buildings and we are already in talks to include 20 more buildings. We shall make the implementation of these projects four times as fast”, Prime Minister Forto said during the signing ceremony.

Prime Minister Forto also said that energy savings in the buildings concerned would be around 20 per cent minimum, which would save energy and also make significant savings in the budget.

According to Minister Damir Filipovic, measures to improve energy efficiency in the public sector will bring other benefits such as reduction of harmful emissions, sustainable development and creation of new jobs. As he emphasized, this Agreement is a continuation of good cooperation with UNDP.

Energy retrofits will be done within the “Green Economic Development” Project. The Swedish Government has invested in its implementation EUR 11 million since 2014, said Marie Bergström, Head of Swedish Development Cooperation. She announced that her Government is planning to allocate additional funds to East European and Western Balkan countries for one reason: the environmental protection is the Swedish Government’s priority.

Ms. Bergström also said that at the beginning of this Project, the Swedish Government’s share of the funds earmarked for energy retrofits on public buildings was 50 per cent. However, at present, the Swedish share is 30 per cent and the municipalities, cantons and other partners cover 70 per cent of the costs of energy efficiency measures.

Resident Representative a.i. of UNDP in BiH Sukhrob Khoshmukhamedov said that energy retrofits to be done on 15 buildings would improve indoor comfort for over 3,300 people and at the same time make annual savings of around BAM 400,000. These investments yield good results and it will be very easy to achieve return on investment in a few years’ time.

Mr. Khoshmukhamedov said that he looked forward to further equally good cooperation with the Government of the Sarajevo Canton and to implementing works on a number of buildings in the Canton.

Energy retrofits will be done through the Green Economic Development Project on the following buildings: the public institution “Campus Therapy Community” of the Sarajevo Canton, Rakovica; the police stations in Ilijas, Trnovo, Vogosca and Hadzici; the primary healthcare clinics in Srednje and Mrakovo which belong to the Community Healthcare Center in Ilijas; the primary healthcare clinic in Tarcin which belongs to the Community Healthcare Center in Hadzici; the Sarajevo Museum; Svrzo’s House museum; the cantonal public institution “Gerontological Center”; the Bosnian Cultural Center; the Sarajevo War Theater; the elementary school “Porodice ef. Ramic”; “Podlugovi” in Vogosca and Ilijas; and the kindergarten “Leptiric” of the public institution “Children of Sarajevo”.

The Green Economic Development Project is dedicated to creating conditions for investments in increasing energy efficiency of public buildings for the purpose of achieving savings in budgets, increasing the number of “green jobs”, improving indoor comfort for beneficiaries and reinvesting saved funds which, in turn, contributes to the country’s economic progress and protection of the environment.

The Project is implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) with financial support from the Swedish Government, the Environmental Protection Fund of the Federation of BiH and the Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Fund of Republika Srpska, in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations BiH, the entity-level Ministries of Spatial Planning, the cantonal-level ministries, municipalities and other partners.