Multi-Million Dollar Low-Carbon Investment Programmes to be Coordinated in Europe

London, United Kingdom, May 29, 2014 --(PR.com)-- Climate-KIC, the European Union’s main climate innovation initiative, and the Lower Silesia region in Poland will coordinate their multi-million dollar investment programmes to support the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Climate-KIC has announced a ground-breaking agreement with the Lower Silesia region in Poland to coordinate their multi-million dollar investment programmes. The announcement was made in the presence of Walter Deffaa, Director General for Regional and Urban Policy at the European Commission during his visit to Lower Silesia on 27-28 May.

Both parties will be making substantial investments in the period running up to 2020. The Lower Silesia region is proposing to spend more than USD$800 million (600 million Euros) of its European Structural and Investment (ESI) funds to support its regional low-carbon economy over the next seven years. Climate-KIC will be investing over USD$500 million (around 400 million Euros) annually to support its pan-European activities during the same period.

Mary Ritter, Climate-KIC Chief Executive Officer commented: “A key aspect of the action required to address the challenges of climate change is to join forces and pioneer new investment alliances. A significant amount of this investment is made at the sub-national level across Europe. I’m very pleased that we are leading the way in forging collaborations such as this one with the Lower Silesia region in Poland.”

Climate-KIC will fund a dedicated project team of specialists from across its partner community to act as a bridge for developing shared ideas and joint actions with the Lower Silesia region. Lower Silesia is one of six European regions active within the larger Climate-KIC community.

Aled Thomas, Director, Climate-KIC Regions commented: “Both Climate-KIC and Lower Silesia will be investing significant amounts of public and private funding in the low-carbon economy up to 2020 and beyond. We are committed to working together to explore and share new ideas on the most effective and efficient ways of supporting the transition to a more sustainable economy. If successful, our goal is to develop similar collaborative arrangements with other regions in Europe and across the world.”

About Climate-KIC

Climate-KIC is the EU’s main climate innovation initiative. It is Europe’s largest public-private innovation partnership focused on mitigating and adapting to climate change. Climate-KIC consists of companies, academic institutions and the public sector.

The organisation has its headquarters in London, UK, and leverages its centres across Europe to support start-up companies, to bring together partners on innovation projects and to educate students to bring about a connected, creative transformation of knowledge and ideas into products and services that help mitigate and adapt to climate change.

Climate-KIC is one of the Knowledge and Innovation Communities (KICs) created in 2010 by the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT), the EU body tasked with creating sustainable European growth while dealing with the global challenges of our time.

http://www.climate-kic.org/press-releases/climate-kic-to-unveil-multimillion-euro-investment-in-four-climate-change-innovation-programmes-at-european-business-summit/

http://www.climate-kic.org/press-releases/climate-innovation-initiative-to-scale-up-efforts-throughout-2014-receives-e63m-eu-boost/