Building climate leadership in Central and Eastern Europe

Our approach

Central and Eastern Europe’s energy transition, while fraught with compound socio-economic challenges, offers growth opportunities that should be properly evaluated and utilised. The region is facing a myriad of challenges, including overreliance on coal, relatively slow renewable deployment, aging infrastructure, and fiscal constraints that need to be tackled with the following principles in mind: 

• A systems perspective: Climate action cannot be an isolated focus; it must be integrated with energy and economic security, a just transition, and should be contemplated within the wider political economy and geopolitical context.  
• An options-based strategy: Energy transition challenges in Central and Eastern Europe necessitate the development of climate policies that incorporate broad solutions options and enable each country in the region to deploy solutions that suits its individual resource endowments and economies.
• An innovation-driven and cost-efficient transition: The energy transition should be underpinned by durable policies that enjoy broad political support and make the region appealing for long-term investments and continuous innovation, while delivering on energy and economic security.