E5P Fund to provide €20 million to Armenia in grants for energy efficiency and environmental projects

YEREVAN, October 21. /ARKA/. The Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) Fund, run by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, will provide €20 million to Armenia in grants for energy efficiency and environmental projects, Anders Lund, EBRD Manager of the E5P Fund, told journalists on Tuesday. 

He said the total budget of E5P is the €117 million provided by donors. The first 20 million is allocated to Armenia.   

Sweden, the key donor in financing Armenia, donated €6 million. 

Lund said that Armenia is an active country, since it has presented more projects than the E5P budget. 

The grants will be provided only to those applicants who have also other financial resources for implementation of their projects. 

Armenian Deputy Natural Resources Minister Hayk Harutyunyan, on his side, said that some 20 projects that are being developed now in the country will be presented by applicants for E5P grants.  

In his words, some of them are already being discussed. The projects of modernization of Yerevan Subway, garbage removal from Kotayk province and Yerevan and energy sufficiency in schools are among them.   

“There are also many other projects easing debt burden and providing new opportunities for applying of energy sufficiency and environment protection technologies.”

The EBRD and the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources of Armenia signed an agreement on Armenia’s participation in the Eastern Europe Energy Efficiency and Environment Partnership (E5P) earlier this year in March 2015, where the government committed €1 million to E5P which will enable Armenia to access grant funds of €20 million for priority energy efficiency and environmental investments in the municipal sector.

The main objective of the initiative is to use grants to leverage loans dedicated to municipal energy efficiency and environmental projects, for example the rehabilitation of water and wastewater systems, solid waste management, street lighting and the insulation of public buildings.

The E5P is a multi-donor fund operating in the Eastern Partnership countries of Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine. The European Union (EU) is the largest overall contributor to E5P with committed funds of €70 million.

For E5P in Armenia, the EU has pledged €10 million which is boosted by additional commitments from the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden, Latvia and Norway. The pledged funds are to help Armenia improve energy efficiency, contributing to energy security and economic competitiveness, policy dialogue, while having a positive impact on the environment. ---0----

Read the news first and discuss them in our Telegram

10:44 10/21/2015