In Eastern Europe, Nefco has a long history of working with the green transition of municipalities, positively impacting communities and the people in these regions. The focus is on energy-efficiency improvements such as energy-saving measures in public buildings and modernisation of street lighting systems in municipalities in Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, and on making a substantial contribution to the modernisation of Ukraine’s obsolete district heating sector based on Nordic expertise combined with policy-related efforts.
Based on data from 2020, these energy-efficiency projects generated savings of 62% in electricity usage and 58% in heat energy usage compared with the pre-project situation, which resulted in CO2 emission reductions of 63%. In street lighting projects the average electricity saving is 75%.
In 2021, Nefco also managed funds for Arctic Council member states, Nordic governments and the Nordic Council of Ministers to implement projects in the Arctic and Barents regions. Many of these are capacity-building projects that do not generate immediate environmental results but facilitate project implementation in a near future.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, supported by Belarus, Nefco has decided to stop all activities in Russia and Belarus as
announced on 9 March 2022.