The National Trust Ecofund held its annual event for 2017 on the 5th of June, the National Polytechnic Museum in Sofia.
At the event, the annual activity report for 2016 was presented to the public. Besides the implemented investment projects totaling over BGN 13 million, in 2016 the Fund also launched a Pilot Scheme for the Promotion of the Use of Electric Vehicles, the Mineral Water Investment Program, and started working on the development of combined financing mechanisms for project financing energy efficiency, as well as purposeful behavioral level work with Bulgarian schools on climate change.
Along with the presentation of the annual report, the event also included a seminar on "The NTEF Approaches to Implementing Flexible Financial Instruments in Publicly Funded Energy Efficiency Projects". During the seminar the concrete steps of several pilot projects with the implementation of financial instruments, which the NTEF develops with its partners, were presented – those of Gabrovo, Samokov, and region Lyulin of the Sofia municipality. The Mayor of Gabrovo stressed the importance of innovative approaches towards technical decisions, as well as in the financial models of the energy efficiency projects with the aim of making the investment more effective.
The event also covered the traditional annual environmental awards under the name of Mimi Pramatarova. This year the competition was for school projects on climate change. First prize went to Secondary School “Ivan Vazov”, Mezdra, for their "Vazovche" Project and they received a statuette, diploma and the prize of 1000 leva. The project team will build a mini-weather station to aid the students in their climate education. The second place was awarded to Maths and Science Highschool "Prof. Emmanouil Ivanov ", Kyustendil, for the project" Environmental Monitoring of the Dragovishtitsa River ", for which they were awarded a diploma and 500 leva with which to continue working on their project. Ranked third were the students of PGT "Dr Vasil Beron ", Veliko Tarnovo, for the project" Classroom - borrowed from nature ", and received a diploma and 300 leva. The awards were presented by the Deputy Minister of Environment and Water Mrs. Atanaska Nikolova, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of NTEF Ms. Irena Georgieva and Anita Kirilova from the Prizewinners of the competition’s club. The cash prizes are intended to support the implementation of upgrading project activities.
