The project was implemented by the Minsk City Executive Committee with the support of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
Interakcia Foundation was one of the project consultants, along with Mott MacDonald (Great Britain) and Ricardo-AEA (Great Britain).
The project was funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (SIDA).
As part of the Green Cities Programme, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development helps partner cities to plan investments into projects that address environmental challenges.
By becoming the first Belarusian participant of the Green Cities Programme, Minsk joined an international network of municipalities that includes Yerevan, Tbilisi, Belgrade, and Tirana.
Participants of the EBRD Green Cities Programme commit to developing and adopting a Green City Action Plan (GCAP) – a roadmap that defines a long-term vision of ‘a green city’ for a 10-15 year perspective.
EBRD experts believe that status of a ‘green city’ with fully developed green investments plan will fuel the interest of international financial institutions and donors. This may result in increased volume of external funding for implementation of large-scale investment projects, such as reconstruction of the Minsk Wastewater Treatment Plant, insulation of residential building, among others.
GCAP is based on the EBRD’s original methodology, which was developed by OECD and ICLEI.
According to this methodology, the city starts with identifying the most pressing environmental challenges and then ranks them according to priority. The next step is to discuss each challenge with all stakeholders and come up with proposed solutions, breaking them down into specific objectives and actions. Actions may lie in the area of investments, services, changes in legislation, or use of other instruments.
Please see TV news on the project’s kick-off meeting on 4 May 2018 from Belarusian Telegraph Agency(in Belarusian) to learn more about the GCAP development process.
