Belgrade, April 29, 2022 

With the support of the European Union, and in partnership with the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA), and the European Investment Bank (EIB), the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Serbia announced the Challenge Call for decarbonisation of the economy and depollution of the environment.

The challenge call aims at removing some of the biggest identified obstacles to green transformation and decarbonisation of the public and corporate sector, such as: the lack of investments, incentive measures and sustainable business models, followed by the lack of a policy framework that promotes synergies for efforts to reduce GHG emissions and other harmful emissions into environment. 

The Call consists of two LOTs and is open until 27June 2022. 

LOT 1  for decarbonisation of the economy by applying new business models, new technologies or digital solutions with the primary objective to reduce GHG emissions in both EU ETS sectors: electricity and heat generation, energy-intensive industry sectors including oil refineries, steelworks, and production of iron, aluminium, metals, cement, lime, glass, ceramics, pulp, paper, cardboard, acids and bulk organic chemicals (i.e. EU-ETS operators) and non-ETS sector (e.g. transport, buildings, agriculture, waste, etc.), as well as entities obliged under the Energy Management System.

LOT 2 – Pollution reduction of IPPC operators (falling under the Industrial Emissions Directive), through investments in the application of the best available technologies to pursue a clean technology transition and better resource efficiency.

At least thirty (30) most promising proposals will receive mentoring and technical support through acceleration process. With the technical support of experts, they will have the opportunity to work on their project concepts, test them and further develop submitted technical solutions. At the end of this phase, projects which are evaluated to contribute most to decarbonisation, contribute reducing the other harmful emissions and transformation to green business models will be chosen for the implementation phase and will receive co-financing.

For all interested applicants, info days will be organized on May 17, May 25, and June 1 2022. 

More details on the conditions of participation in the challenge and how to apply are available on the website: www.zelena-agenda.euzatebe.rs. 

The public call has been published within the "EU for the Green Agenda in Serbia" project, which, with the financial support of the European Union and in partnership with the Ministry of the Environment, is implemented by UNDP in cooperation with the Embassy of Sweden and the EIB.