ABMEE was set up in 2003, through a partnership between Brasov Municipality and the European Commission, the General Directorate for Transport and Energy and attracted financing to carry out in Brasov projects for the sustainability of the local community, the reduction of CO2 emissions, the adaptation to climate change, said Camelia Rață, Executive Director of the Agency for Energy Management and Environment Protection Brasov (ABMEE), during the conference “Digitalization and Energy Efficiency – Brasov”, organized by Energynomics.
“A good part of our activity is monitoring and energy management – monitoring, analysis and reporting of energy consumption in public lighting, public buildings, transport, consumption in spatial planning – decisions are made on all these data,” she said.
The ABMEE drew up an Action Plan for Sustainable Energy – and for 2020 the target for reducing CO2 emissions was set at 32%, we are now in the reporting phase.
“The result of the emission reduction is more visible in specific consumption, because Brasov is developing, of course, and consumption has increased, but there are areas, such as public lighting, where there are significant reductions,” she said.
At the same time, the ABMEE is developing the Sustainable Energy and Climate Plan for 2030. And the new Tomorrow project, developed by a transition team, Brasov’s sustainable and green development are taken further, with targets set for 2040-2050, she said.
“The Tomorrow project was launched last year, since then this transition team was established and we are working on fields of activity. In the project management part, together with another ongoing project on the historic area – we apply and try to attract funds in the municipality to reduce CO2 emissions and adapt to climate change”, claims Camelia Rață.
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“This change in energy efficiency and climate neutrality has already entered the political language as a slogan. Even politicians are now moving toward climate neutrality. We started to understand the terminology and now we use the right concepts,” Camelia Rață said.
The concept of Tomorrow means “TOwards Multi-stakeholder transition ROadmaps With citizens at the center” – or the transition of authorities taking into account the citizen. The project supports local authorities in the transition to low-carbon cities, in the development and implementation of energy and climate plans for 2050, in determining the path to achieving long-term European goals. The concept is developed in 6 cities (Brașov, Brest, Dublin, Mouscron, Niš and Valencia), which will develop roadmaps for transition, through a process of collaboration and engagement with the citizens and other local stakeholders, becoming pilot projects for the transition to other European cities.
“In the six cities, we will develop these road maps to energy transition, through cooperation and involvement of citizens… The concept of energy transition is new and the technical support, in our case is provided by a dedicated institute – the Dutch Research Institute for transitions,” she said.
At the same time, the Transition Team of Brașov managed to establish a work plan and will establish a roadmap for 2030-40-50. In the field of constructions, the Team studies the best solutions for power supply of new developments: in a centralized system with a high-efficiency cogeneration source, or by local production by micro-cogeneration and green energy supply, as well as the most suitable variants to build with the help of nZEB solutions towards climate neutrality. At the same time, analyzes are made for the renovation of the existing buildings for high energy performance, monitoring, analysis and evaluation of final energy consumption, monthly, annually and multiannual, as well as verification of technical documentation, to implement the most suitable renovation solutions with existing limitations.
She stressed the necessity for cities to draft bankable projects, which are easy to finance by banks, directly and not just by European funds. To finance small cities, projects under EUR 20 million, which the major institutional financiers do not finance, the European Commission, through the EIB, has developed a new special facility for small projects, and approved by the banks, the EU City Facility.
“We have to get used to the idea that we need bankable projects also in local public administration, that we cannot remain to wait for European funds. It is not just Romania – this instrument is available for all European countries”, she said.
The conference “Digitalization and Energy Efficiency – the 5th year – Brașov” was organized by Energynomics, with the support of our partners ABB, Eaton România, EnelX România, Kawasaki Gas Turbines Europe, Wiren Energy.
More than 200 people registered on the MyConnector platform to participate in the dialogue.
