Annual European Climate Initiative (EUKI) conference being held online today and tomorrow
The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) is calling for project ideas that help implement ambitious climate action policies in Europe. Non-profit organisations from civil society, science, business, education and municipalities can submit proposals to the sixth European Climate Initiative (EUKI) call for project ideas until 12 January 2022. Interested parties from all EU member states can apply; the regional focus is on Central, Eastern and Southern Europe and the Baltic states.
Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze commented: "The European Climate Initiative is part of our contribution to achieving the EU climate targets and allows us to play an active role in transboundary climate action in Europe. We support a variety of activities at local, regional and national levels. We support restoring peatlands and a just transition towards a coal phase-out in some regions of Europe, and we are creating immediate solutions for liveable cities, for instance by promoting cycling. Our initiative also supports schools all around Europe with information and educational work on sustainability and climate action. There are no limits on the ideas for effective climate action. This is why our call for project ideas is going out to all of Europe for the sixth time."
Since its founding in 2017, EUKI has become a successful funding programme. It receives financing of 62.4 million euros from the BMU and has initiated 157 projects in 25 EU member states and six Western Balkan countries. EUKI is also a networking platform for over 300 organisations, municipalities, schools, administrative authorities and universities involved in implementing climate targets in the EU. At the EUKI Academy, representatives of these entities have the opportunity to expand their knowledge on climate policy and better prepare themselves institutionally, thereby amplifying their voices in international climate discussions.
Since 2019, EUKI also funds projects in the EU candidate countries of the Western Balkans. Project funding can be up to one million euros for projects up to 28 months in duration in eight core areas: climate policy, energy, buildings and municipalities, mobility, agriculture, soils and forestry, awareness, climate-aligned finance and sustainable economy.
Today the sixth call for project ideas will be launched at the annual EUKI conference. The BMU has invited climate policy experts working in EUKI-funded projects for discussion at the event taking place on 23 and 24 November 2021. This is the third EUKI Networking Conference, ‘Fit for Climate Action – Together for a Climate-Neutral Europe’. After last year’s conference was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s conference will be held online for the first time.
EUKI will thus be providing a transboundary platform for exchanging experience and specific know-how on climate policy and technical topics. In addition, participants can discuss the social and ecological transformation in their countries in small groups and informal frameworks.