Key stakeholders in energy efficiency financing in Croatia

(Regional Energy Agency North - Koprivnica-Krizevci County)

Key stakeholders for energy efficiency strategy development in the City of Koprivnica and in its wider area (municipality level and Koprivnica-Krizevci County) are:

• National and Regional authorities - will better support local authorities in providing the suitable environment for energy efficiency measures implementation, especially in terms of financial support;

• Local authorities - will be able to build their capacity, experience and skills in energy efficiency strategy implementation and exploit synergies and economies of scale as a result of multi governance collaboration;

• Financial institutions/funding organisations – it is necessary to reach market actors, commercial banks, Funds and other businesses that can provide certain innovative financing packages, grants or loans for financing energy efficiency measures implementation;

• Energy companies - which work on observed area and have a legal obligation (according to Croatian Energy Efficiency Act) to annually reduce energy consumption. Such energy companies operate both regionally and on national level in Croatia and will be tackled to join efforts and assist end users to mitigate energy consumption and enhance energy efficiency.

The national government has the obligation to meet the EU’s 2020/2030/2050 goals so some legal responsibilities had to be defined. According to Energy Performance Building Directive, on a national level, new public buildings have to meet nZEB requirements and cities (construction departments) are in charge of monitoring implementation. As already mentioned, energy companies also have the legal obligation (according to the Croatian Energy Efficiency Act) to annually reduce energy consumption.