Leuven is taking an important step forward in its climate action this month with the launch of FACT (Financing Accelerated City Transformation), which will see the Belgian city enter a new phase of its net zero journey.
The City of Leuven and Leuven 2030 teams secured €600,000 in funding from the ‘Enabling City Transformation’ (ECT) programme, which will help cover the set-up and structuring costs of the Leuven Climate City Fund, as well as some of its initial running costs and pipeline development actions in the field of district heating.
The Climate City Capital Hub (Capital Hub) and BwB have been advising on various aspects of securing funding and financial structuring.
“This milestone is part of a broader strategy that supports Leuven in its efforts to launch the first Climate City Fund in Europe,” commented BwB Associate, Alvar Gener. “The strategy involves an innovative use of blended finance, strategically leveraging support from public funds – in an effort spanning several EU grant applications together with other public sources – to drive private capital participation. A guarantee mechanism will also be part of the overall structure.”
Filip Coenen, Leuven 2030's Financial Architect, added: “We are grateful to the Capital Hub and the BwB team for their advice and support in defining the strategy and scope for the different calls and reviewing our ECT application, as well as for contributing their expertise to shape some of the planned blended finance enabling mechanisms. The fact that the pipeline development actions in this context will be focused on a strategic topic such as district heating is an extra plus.”
When deployed together with other upcoming developments, this advancement in innovative climate finance has the potential to serve as both a precedent and a strategic blueprint for cities across #Europe!
Learn more about the Capital Hub at https://netzerocities.eu/capital-hub/) and BwB's leading role in its work at https://www.bwb.earth/climatecitycapitalhub)
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