On May 25, 2022, a national round table discussion on the development of a sustainable financing framework for energy efficiency financing  took place in Riga, looking for ways and recommendations for its implementation in Latvia and analysing examples of good practice from other countries. The event was organized by the Latvian Environmental Investment Fund in cooperation with the Ministry of Economics and the Finance Latvia Association within the RoundBaltic project.

Sustainable financing is one of the most pressing topics in the last year in the context of financing energy efficiency (implementation of the taxonomy regulation, energy crisis, EU Green Deal, climate change, etc.). Organizers and stakeholders see the development of a sustainable financing framework as one of the key tools to accelerate the development of financing for energy efficiency projects, so it is particularly important to create a platform and opportunities for stakeholder discussions to develop constructive solutions. This national round table serves as a tool for dialogue and cooperation between the various stakeholders – policy makers, implementers, business and industry experts. The aim of the event is to create proposals for the industry and policy makers to improve the attraction of private funding for energy efficiency in Latvia.

Five high-ranking opinion leaders – Martins Zemitis (Deputy Head of the European Commission Representation in Latvia), Irina Kuzmina (Head of Sustainability area at Swedbank Baltics AS in Latvia), Atis Zakatistovs (Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Finance), Raimonds Lapins (Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Economics) and Jekabs Krievins (Member of the ALTUM Board) – will participate in the first panel discussion, which will be broadcast live on Facebook from 9:30 to 11:00.

The parallel round table session discussions covered such topics related to sustainable financing as the implementation of a sustainable financing framework in Latvia, examples in Europe and practical aspects and necessary preparations in the context of data and higher activity of project implementation. A total of 13 different speakers took part in the parallel discussions – from the Ministry of Finance and Economy, European Investment Bank, Financial Latvia Association, European Commission, ALTUM, Estonian Ministry of Economics, Riga Energy Agency, Nordic Investment Bank, BaltCap Infrastructure Fund, Liepaja state cities and local governments of Valmiera region.

The discussions was moderated by experts in the field of energy efficiency and sustainable financing – Dace Helmane (Member of the Board of the Institute for Corporate Sustainability and Responsibility), Viktors Toropovs (SEB Bank’s Sustainability area Manager in Latvia) and Reinis Aboltins (Energy Expert).

The aim of the national round table discussion was to continue the dialogue between the main stakeholders in Latvia on attracting private funding for energy efficiency projects and to identify common challenges and potential improvements that could be achieved in the current policy context and business practice.

RoundBaltic project in Latvia

The RoundBaltic project is aimed at developing new instruments for attracting private financing for sustainable energy efficiency in Latvia in 3 main sectors – public, housing, SMEs. The event is a follow-up of the RoundBaltic Roundtable held on December 8, 2021 and other events that brought together around 94 participants from 54 organizations. The second theme of the national round table stems from what has been discussed in previous events, including the Sustainable Energy Investment Forums.

The national round table discussion is taking place in accordance with the Smart Finance for Smart Buildings initiative, in the context of which the European Commission is organizing a Horizon 2020 project “Promoting Smart Finance for Smart Buildings in the Baltics – Poland, Latvia and Denmark – RoundBaltic”. The project is organizing a series of forums dedicated to energy investment with the aim of increasing public and private resources and cooperation to develop large-scale investment programs, one-stop shops and financing plans to improve energy efficiency.