The conference on financing energy efficiency was held on 16-17 September in Istanbul. It was intended to create a platform for exchanging knowledge of and experience with effective business strategies for developing and marketing products to finance energy efficiency improvement projects in private sectors of the economy. The conference was organised by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in cooperation with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEPFI). Attending the conference were representatives of the EU Commission, the UN, governments of Turkey, Austria, France as well as 50 financial institutions from more than 20 countries from Central-Eastern Europe and North Africa.

Mr Wojciech Rybak spoke i.a. about the success of PolSEFF (Polish Sustainable Energy Financing Facility), under which Millennium Leasing financed more than 450 projects in the SME sector in the amount of PLN 200 million. After the programme’s credit facility became exhausted Millennium Leasing was one of few financial institutions in Poland to offer a proprietary product, which was a follow-up on the PolSEFF concept.

This is a model example of how financial institutions can combine commercial activity with efforts supporting the natural environment and preventing global warming. Results attained by PolSEFF also demonstrated that Poland is in the forefront of implementing such solutions in Central Europe and in developing economies.

PolSEFF financed more than 2000 projects carried out by small and medium enterprises. In result total annual energy savings reached 331 GWh and annual CO2 emissions were reduced by more than 100,000 tons.