European Climate Initiative (EUKI) Project Funding

Deadline: 12-Mar-2024

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK) has launched European Climate Initiative (EUKI) Project Funding.

Objectives

• Addressing climate change is one of the biggest global challenges of the 21st century. The average global temperature on Earth’s surface is continuously increasing due to rising greenhouse gas (GHG) concentrations in the atmosphere. The impacts are already evident today and will intensify. If global warming continues unchecked, it is likely to exceed the adaptive capacity of natural and social systems within a short period. Against this background, all signatories of the Paris Agreement are committed to keeping global warming significantly below 2.0° C, ideally limiting it to 1.5° C.
• To achieve this goal, the European Union (EU) has raised its ambition level in the past years and set climate neutrality by 2050 at the latest as the binding EU target. Until 2030 GHG emissions shall decrease by at least 55%, compared to 1990. These targets have been enshrined in the European Climate Law and the European Green Deal, which forms the EU’s fundamental strategy for this joint effort. The EU must show that climate and environmental protection, a thriving economy and social justice can go hand in hand, only then others will follow on a worldwide scale. With the approval of most files of the “Fit for 55” legislation package and the REPowerEU plan, the foundation for a successful implementation has been laid.
• The overarching goal of the European Climate Initiative (EUKI) is to support the path towards climate neutrality not later than 2050 by advancing the green transformation through climate action and collaboration across Europe. Since the EUKI is guided by the priorities at the EU level, funded projects should relate to the “Fit for 55” package implementation and/ or the framework post 2030 as well as contribute to strengthening civil society’s role in climate action on all levels including local and regional levels as well as trans-border European cooperation. The EUKI funds creative solutions and projects on the ground that are essential to lead the way and shape cleaner, healthier, fair and prosperous economies, societies and policies. Projects must contribute to GHG emissions reductions and to the successful implementation of European climate policies and instruments as well as to deepen the understanding of and participation in EU climate and energy transformation.

Topics

• Project ideas must cover one of the following topics:
  • Carbon Removals and Sinks
  • Climate-Neutral Mobility
  • Climate Policy
  • Energy Transition and Climate-Neutral Buildings
  • Just Transition
  • Sustainable Economy

Funding Information

• Financing of between EUR 120,000 and EUR 1,000,000 may be provided for each project.

Eligible Project

• Climate change mitigation
  • Projects must demonstrate their contribution to GHG reductions (direct or indirect), avoidance or removals, where applicable (henceforth referred to as reductions). Project ideas must thus contain substantiated statements on the GHG reduction potential and estimate it where possible.
  • Project ideas advancing to the second stage of the selection procedure must state justified GHG reduction estimates and provide transparent remarks on applied methods. The project should elaborate on the scalability potential if the project approach were to be applied on a larger scale after the project ends. The explanation of plausible and transparent methods for the calculation of GHG reduction potentials is as important as the amount of potential GHG reductions stated. However, in the selection process, projects are not ranked according to GHG mitigation potential.
• Capacity development
  • Projects can aim at developing capacities at the individual, organisational and systemic level focusing on public, civil society and academic institutions and their needs, and on the political, business and education sectors. They can address enhancing analytical and advisory capacities, e.g., through workshops, training courses, additional qualifications, organisational and/ or methodological development, or temporary cross-border consultation missions.
• Creation of networks
  • Projects can aim at establishing and strengthening sustainable bilateral and multilateral cooperation formats. They can promote networks and climate partnerships, e.g., between government institutions, municipalities, civil society, the academic community, and enterprises.
• Implementing policies and measures, developing strategies, and conducting feasibility studies
  • Projects can aim at designing, implementing, or piloting climate-policy instruments. They can focus on analysing potential GHG emission savings, devising practical solutions for the removal of barriers to the implementation of transformative climate and energy strategies, or developing geographically specific methods (including feasibility studies) for evaluating and analysing concrete mitigation projects.
• Awareness raising, education, media, dialogue formats, and dissemination measures
  • Projects can aim at initiating and strengthening dialogue, participation, consultation, and stakeholder processes promoting knowledge-building and awareness-raising in relation to climate change and climate action.
• Promoting gender equality and alleviating vulnerability
  • Projects need to be aware of potentially sensitive contexts and conflicts and promote gender equality, where applicable. This entails integrating a gender perspective into the project planning process, considering interests and needs of all genders while striving for equitable results. Besides, projects need to avoid activities likely to increase the vulnerability of certain groups.

Eligibility Criteria

• Eligible countries: The EUKI finances projects in EU Member States and the following EU candidate countries as well as potential candidate countries from the Western Balkans (ALB, BIH, XK, MNE, MKD, SRB).
• Non-eligible countries: Ukraine, Georgia, Turkey and Moldova are not eligible. Please consider other funding schemes, e.g., International Climate Initiative (IKI).
• Number of countries: Each project must be conducted in at least two eligible countries. Only in exceptional cases, a project in only one country is permitted.
• Office of implementers and implementing partners: Implementers must have their official office in an EU Member State, EU candidate country or potential candidate country or be registered there. Bilateral and multilateral consortia are equally sought; however, next to one implementer, the maximum number of implementing partners is four. In highly exceptional cases this limit might be lifted for large projects. The number of implementing partners should be proportionate to the project’s goals and funding and to the distribution and weighting of each set of tasks.
• Legal capacity: Only projects implemented by legal persons with their own legal capacity are eligible for financing. Suitable evidence must be provided. This equally applies to German institutions and implementers from other countries. Projects being implemented by individuals are excluded from financing in this call for project ideas.
• Non-profit status: Implementers and implementing partners must be non-profit entities according to their articles of association and actual management. Furthermore, the activity/the project must promote public-benefit purposes in accordance with the German (tax) code for non-profit organisations, e.g., protecting the environment. If within one and the same institution there is a commercial operation alongside a non-profit business, the former is excluded from financing. In such cases, implementers must prove that the project is being implemented exclusively in the non-profit area of the business and that project activities explicitly do not include any commercial activities within the meaning of European legislation on state aid. German implementers and implementing partners must prove their nonprofit status by submitting a (provisional) certificate of tax exemption together with their completed project proposal. Moreover, national legal persons under public law can be eligible for financing.
• Foreign implementers must, where possible, refer to corresponding national regulations equivalent to German legislation governing the non-profit sector and evidence of compliance with the corresponding criteria on the part of their organisation.
• Types of organisations (implementer and implementing partners): Implementers and implementing partners must belong to one of the following categories:
  • Non-governmental organisations
  • Universities, academic and educational institutions
  • National, regional and local authorities
  • Non-profit enterprises
• Please note that political foundations cannot be financed.

For more information, visit BMWK.

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