European Union supports a climate project, unique for Belarus

The concluding conference of the project "Braslaŭ District – the First Climate Neutral Municipality in Belarus", implemented by the Braslaŭ District Executive Committee and the Centre for Environmental Solutions with the EU support, will be held in Braslaŭ on 29-30 November 2018.

The Braslaŭ District's strategic developments (such several energy development and climate neutrality scenarios) will be presented at the concluding conference. In addition, the district will demonstrate its experience in carrying out practical measures to reduce energy consumption, improve energy performance, increase the share of renewable energy sources in the general energy mix, and reduce CO₂ emissions. The participants will have an opportunity to visit demonstration sites established under the project: a boiler house with upgraded woodchip-fired boilers, a kindergarten with solar collectors and energy-efficient equipment, the city street sectors, where conventional lamps were replaced with LEDs.

This project has a strategic significance in the national context: it is the first-in-Belarus example of a wide-scale operation both on improving a district's energy performance, converting to local fuels, partially to renewable energy sources, and on achieving climate neutrality.

– Owing to the financial support from the European Union, we managed to make concrete steps in Braslaŭ Districts to turn it into a carbon-free centre. The project's main effect is that its experience may be extended to other parts of the country, – comments Dmitry Burenkin, the Project Manager of the Centre for Environmental Solutions. – А huge component of these efforts is also related with public awareness raising. Each city resident must understand and realise that his/her concrete actions and personal habits may affect global processes.