FALCO – General Press Release

December 4, 2018

The FALCO project is funded by the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme. The main objective of the project is to further develop and pilot financing solutions and accompanying (policy) measures in support of local climate action plans in Flanders.

This unique combination of financing and supporting policy measures aims to overcome financial and non-financial barriers to energy efficiency investment and will unlock the large untapped sustainable energy investment potential in the region.

More than two third of the local authorities in Flanders (Belgium) have signed the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), committing to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020 and/or 40 % by 2030. Many of these local authorities have committed to look beyond the CoM requirements, aspiring to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, sometimes even earlier.

Flemish CoM signatories have prepared ambitious local climate action plans containing a vast array of emission reduction measures targeted to different stakeholders. Given the sheer investment volume, these local climate action plans together could amount to a powerful economic recovery plan. Unfortunately, most of these plans lack a comprehensive and robust financial plan.

The FALCO project focuses on bridging this gap between planning and implementation, by putting in place relevant financial solutions that will unlock ambitious local climate action plans.

FALCO addresses this problem by developing a financing solution to accelerate energy-saving investments and achieve the implementation of ambitious local climate plans.

Identified financing solutions will be tested in real life throughout the FALCO project, by funding a project volume of at least 17 Million euros, split into three main categories: energy renovation of public buildings, energy renovation of private buildings and energy efficiency investments for SME’s.

The FALCO consortium is composed as followed: