The Impact of International Partnerships

There are a number of funding programmes and projects that can help drive the energy transition forward. The central problem here is not necessarily the number of funding opportunities, but rather the bureaucratic burden that municipalities face in identifying, assessing and applying for such projects. Due to financial pressure in times of tight budgets, an increasing number of municipalities are applying for funding programmes. The overload on the programmes and the low chances of success were a recurring theme during the project period. 

Skilled workers are required for every application, which in turn must be funded. A lack of English language skills in partner municipalities in Ukraine and, for example, the Republic of Moldova presents an additional hurdle. Consequently, such applications pose a major hurdle, particularly for small municipalities. Furthermore, some local authoritiesare simply too small to qualify for certain funding programmes. The lengthy and complicated application processes tie up a lot of staff time without any certainty of receiving approval, as the chances of success are often below ten per cent. In particular, low financing costs should help to reduce the risk for local authorities. Streamlined and simplified application procedures, as well as consistent funding, could make it easier for towns and local authorities to finance the energy transition. The German Climate and Transformation Fund represents a step in the
right direction in this regard.

Decentralisation is the key to protecting against cascade effects, safeguarding critical infrastructure such as hospitals, etc., and making a coordinated attack considerably much harder to orchestrate. Independence, decentralisation and preparedness have become essential to increase the resilience of local authorities and to strengthen the psychological and physical resilience of civil society itself. To complement technical decentralisation through renewables, there is a simultaneous need for networking among local authorities. International partnerships should form the core of this. Ukrainian local authorities are not the only ones with extensive expertise on resilience in times of crisis. Those in Bosnia and Herzegovina and other regions also have this expertise, as demonstrated by their ability to carry out repairs
under extreme pressure. The value of exchanging these experiences and perhaps also the protective concepts developed in this context cannot be overstated. At the local level, this exchange is more direct and rapid. It is not constrained by national dependencies or those tied to international treaties. Furthermore, cross-border standards for decentralised networks can be developed to provide assistance in an
emergency.

In contrast to the often cumbersome German planning practices, transnational knowledge exchange with current and former crisis regions acts as a decisive accelerator. This technological ‘leapfrogging’ makes it clear that resilience is above all a question of the speed of  implementation. Ongoing international exchange between local authorities enables rapid knowledge transfer, allowing us to benefit from the experiences of others without having to laboriously ‘go through’ every process ourselves. True security arises here through a bold reduction of bureaucratic hurdles in favour of the ability to act immediately. Germany and the EU must massively increase their rate of adaptation and consistently continue down the path of decentralised renewables – not merely as an ecological project, but as a necessary protective shield for security in the EU and its neighbouring countries