Capacity-Building Programme

 

By focusing on innovative financing schemes, PROSPECT+ capacity-building programme (CBP) refers to non-traditional ways of raising funds and facilitating sustainable energy and climate investments by mixing different sources (own funds, public and private funds) or engaging different partners (e.g., citizens, private sector). These innovative financing schemes include:


• Citizens Finance (crowdfunding and cooperatives)
• Energy Performance Contracting (EPC)
• Internal Contracting (intracting)
• Green Bonds (local government - or their agencies - can issue green bonds to fund their sustainable energy and climate actions.)
• Guarantee Funds (loan guarantees provided to lenders which serve as buffers against first losses of non-payment by the borrowers)
• Soft Loans (loans below market rates and with longer payback periods derived from public funding to facilitate investments)
• Revolving Funds (established to finance a continuing cycle of investments through initial amounts received from its shareholders)
• Third Party Financing (debt financing where project financing comes from a third party, e.g. ESCO which is not a user or customer)

 

 

5 Thematic Areas

 

The PROSPECT+ Capacity-Building Programme will be articulated upon the following 5 thematic areas:

 

Public Buildings

Covers buildings and facilities owned, managed, or controlled by public authorities. Facilities refer to energy consuming entities that are not buildings, such as wastewater treatment plants.

Private Buildings

Covers buildings owned, managed, or controlled by private individuals or corporations. These refer primarily to the tertiary sector (services), such as private companies, banks, commercial, and retail activities, hospitals, etc. and residential buildings, including social housing.

Transport

Covers the provision of and management of mass transit systems by public authorities, as well as private transport.

Public Lighting

Covers the provision of public lighting (e.g. street lighting and traffic lights) owned or operated by public authorities. Non-municipal public lighting is under private buildings.

Cross Sectoral

Covers all those interventions falling under two or more thematic areas; climate change adaptation; local electricity production e.g., wind power, hydroelectric power, photovoltaic; and local heat/cold production e.g., combined heat and power and district heating plant.

 

 

Facts & Dates

 

Timeline: PROSPECT+ will launch 4 calls for applications to engage mentors and mentees in its 4 learning cycles. The duration of a cycle is flexible, ranging from 4 to 8 months, depending on the availability of participants and the work plan and time plan of each group. The timeline of the 4 cycles is as follows:

The learning programme aims to engage a total of 200 local and regional authorities (including energy/climate agencies, local and regional organisations (e.g., development agencies, municipal companies, energy cooperatives) and external consultants working for a local or regional public authority) directly participating in one of its four learning cycles, either as mentors or mentees.

Participants with similar interests are matched in groups so that they can learn with and from each other on how to apply innovative financing schemes.

In each learning cycle, PROSPECT+ aims to create at least 16 learning groups, each of them gathering from 2 to 7 participants, depending on the peer learning method described below:

Peer mentoring: a one-to-one relationship between a mentor and a mentee that enables deep learning exchanges, joint problem solving, and counselling.

Study visit: a group of mentees learning from the mentors how they have implemented their project and getting first-hand insights and recommendations.

Local mentoring: a study group in which the participants are in the same country (or region), who speak the same language and have common backgrounds and plans.

Language: The PROSPECT+ Capacity Building Programme and all related exchanges and materials will be carried out in English. Participants must have a B2 command of English to be able to communicate easily within their group, in all activities of the programme. An exception will be made for local mentoring groups, where activities will take place in the national languages.

Fees: Participation to the PROSPECT+ Capacity-Building Programme and all related activities is free of charge and travel and accommodation costs related to the physical visit will be reimbursed.

Detailed Overview: More detailed information about the modalities of participation, the responsibilities of mentors and mentees as well as the structure of the learning cycles are provided in the “Get Involved” section.

Click here to check Success Stories from PROSPECT.

 

 

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