YEREVAN, the capital city of Armenia, will become a greener and more energy-efficient place thanks to the funding from the European Investment Bank (EIB).

An EIB loan worth €7m will help the Municipality of Yerevan to finance energy efficiency improvements in public buildings. In parallel, a combination of financing and grants by the EIB and international donors will improve solid waste management in the Armenian capital.

The funding will contribute to improving energy efficiency in public buildings such as kindergartens in Yerevan, lowering energy and maintenance costs and allowing for the reduction of CO2 and other greenhouse gas emissions.

The project will help bring local building standards up to the levels stipulated in EU legislation. In particular, public buildings included in the project will adopt renewable energy solutions where viable, become more resilient to seismic risk and offer better access to disabled people.

Yerevan’s Mayor, Taron Margarjan stated: “I would like to note that Yerevan Energy Efficiency is a unique project not only because of its positive impact on lowering the energy consumption of public buildings and CO2 emissions but also because this is the first time that Yerevan Municipality has signed a non-sovereign loan, and this is going to be the first and hopefully one of the best examples of donor-community collaboration.”

Picture of Yerevan at night by Սէրուժ Ուրիշեան (Serouj Ourishian) – reproduced under CC BY-SA 3.0.