The INSPIRenov partners gathered in Sofia for a 3-day workshop dedicated to the piloting of a blended financing scheme for multifamily buildings in Bulgaria. The innovative financing scheme will be the first in the country to offer alternative financial products to households for energy efficiency retrofits of multifamily building. The meetings included a series of discussions with local and international experts from the World Bank in Bulgaria, EnEffect – Bulgaria, Latvia, Estonia, and Hungary on the challenges to energy efficiency and buildings renovation. INSPIRenov is set to provide technical assistance to banks to co-develop and test blended financing products to support families in the process.

SDA, a partner in INSPIRenov, hosted a meeting focused on the role of local authorities for promoting such products and facilitating homeowners’ access to them. The alternative funding sources will allow households to make home improvements to withstand increasingly volatile climate changes, among them prolonged and persistent heat waves, flooding, etc. Currently, SDA coordinates a 19-partner project - BeReady - funded by the Interreg Danube Program, which tackles multiple challenges linked to the phenomenon of urban heat islands. During the discussions, we had an opportunity to share with the international experts initial findings from BeReady and to identify channels for collaboration in the next two years.