City of Belgrade joins EU Sustainable Energy Week initiative #EUSEW2017

The “ENERGY WEEK – Nedelja energije” will be organized for the first time in Serbia as a part of EU Sustainable Energy Week, an initiative of the European Commission taking place across European continent. The event will take place from May 29 to June 2 and will be excellent opportunity for all the stakeholders to discuss sustainable energy and environmental protection challenges and oppoortunities.

The conference is organized by Central European Development Forum – CEDEF and the Secretariat of Energy of the City of Belgrade, under the patronage of city of Belgrade and Ministry of Mining and Energy of the Republic of Serbia.

This event is registered on the official website of the European Commission as one of the events that will be organized during the EU Sustainable Energy Week launched back in 2006. This year there will be 148 events register to take place across Europe as part of this initiative.

The Balkan Green Energy News website has been selected as an official media partner of the EU Sustainable Energy Week for the region of South-east Europe.

During the Energy week event in Belgrade new smart and innovative solutions and technologies will be presented. The focus will be on the promotion and raising of public awareness of the importance of energy security, efficiency and consumption, renewable energy, environmental protection and climate change.

The Energy Week is organized both for professionals and citizens. Representatives of state institutions, universities and scientific institutions, companies and manufacturers of smart technologies, local governments, civil society, and representatives of schools will participate at many events to be organized during the Energy week.

CEDEF announced numerous meetings, conferences, workshops and other activities to take place, including a visit to Belgrade district heating company, Beogradske elektrane, or presentation of students’ Formula Team “Road Arrow 2017 ” at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. The registration for participation at the major conferences is obligatory and can be done via CEDEF site.

“Energy Week will be a great opportunity to present domestic know-how and skills, local accomplishments as well. Our goal is to present to general public all the activities of the city of Belgrade that are currently taking place in order to motivate citizens to join”, the City of Belgrade Secretary of Energy Marko Stojanović said.

He pointed out that in addition to conferences in which the most eminent domestic and foreign experts in the field of energy and environment will participate, there will be programs for elementary and secondary schools children, too.

He also pointed out that this event should become traditional one.

The CEDEF President Ana Bovan said that it is of great importance for Serbia to organize such an event for the first time having in mind that it is also a part of the EU Sustainable Energy Week.

“The CEDEF considered that it was the right moment for Serbia to become part of this big initiative and thus present its best projects and initiatives and to put them on the map of major energy projects in the EU and beyond,” Bovan said.

The focus will be on the solutions and opportunities that cities and municipalities could use in order to facilitate sustainable energy developments and energy savings. In this context, the session on public-private partnerships and ESCO model will be organized on Wednesday, May 31, with a focus on application on PPP-ESCO contracts. 

UNEP presenting project currently implementing in Belgrade 

During the Energy week, the activities which Belgrade implements in cooperation with UN Environment Program (UNEP) in order to improve energy efficiency and sustainable energy development in district heating system, will be presented. The City of Belgrade participates in two projects under the UN initiative Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All).

The activities within the project Building Efficiency Accelerator (BEA), which aims to improve energy efficiency in buildings and in which the World Resources Institute from Washington also participates, will be presented during the workshop scheduled for Thursday, June 1.

On Friday, June 2, the second workshop of UNEP “Energy mapping within systems of heating in cities ” will be held.

“We are happy to participate at the first ever Energy Week in Belgrade with the opportunity to present two of the projects being implemented currently under the UN SE4All global initiative in close cooperation with the City of Belgrade. UN Environment is seeking to support the efforts of the City to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and its district heating system through speeding up policy response and facilitating planning and implementing of necessary actions, “ the UNEP said on this occasion.

“By gathering a variety of both public and private stakeholder groups we aim to ensure the sustainability of these two projects, their synergy and future potential for replication in other cities in Serbia, but also regionally,” the UNEP added.