- Date Friday September 4th 2020
- Organizations Involved C40 GIZ Paranacidade
- Sector Clean and renewable energy projects
On Friday September 4th, the C40 Cities Finance Facility celebrated its partnership with Paranacidade, an autonomous social service organization of the State of Parana in Brazil whose main objective is promote policies from the state government on institutional, urban and regional development.
The CFF supports the cities of Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro with the development of their solar PV projects. As part of this support, the CFF is dedicated to generating knowledge, based on the program’s experience in Curitiba and Rio de Janeiro, that can help other municipalities in Brazil undertake early stage actions to deliver their own solar PV projects.
On the other hand, Paranacidade, in conjunction with the Green Building Council Brazil (GBC Brazil), has been promoting initiatives for cooperation, development and execution of actions related to the implementation of the Zero Energy Project, proving that local energy consumption can be “reach zero” by implementing a combination of high energy efficiency and clean energy actions in seven municipalities of the State of Parana.
In this context, the CFF and Paranacidade share a common objective of working with municipalities to support urban sustainable development. Therefore, C40, GIZ and Paranacidade celebrate a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to enable cities in the region to plan and implement efficiency energy projects, as well as actions related to the generation of clean and renewable energy.
Geraldo Luiz Farias, Superintendent Advisor to Paranacidade, moderated the event, highlighting the organisations’ shared objective of “providing welfare and economic opportunities to the people.”
From C40, Ilan Cuperstein, Deputy Director for Latin America, stated that while C40 is a network of 94 megacities committed in facing the climate crisis, “one of our efforts is to also share knowledge with non-C40 cities and it is within this logic that we are very excited to celebrate our partnership between Paranacidade and the C40 Cities Finance Facility.”
James Alexander, Head of the CFF from C40, and Henri Gebauer, Head of City Operations within the CFF (representing GiZ), mentioned the importance of these types of partnerships, especially with regards to the spread of knowledge and lessons learned to municipalities in the state of Parana, therefore supporting regional development in Brazil.
Paranacidade is aligned with the 2030 Agenda from the UN and its Sustainable Development Goals. We all want to see the achievement of the SDG goals, especially goal 11.
The CFF recently coordinated the delivery of a Webinar Series on the Deployment of PV Solar projects in Brazil. Thanks to the support of Paranacidade, each conference was attended by over 100 participants. Regarding this collaboration, James stated “when we a share information and create the forums to do this, people move things forward more quickly and more sustainably.”
After João Fávaro de Oliveira, Senior Project Advisor for the CFF in Curitiba, and Geraldo Luiz Farias announced the main points of the MoU, João Carlos Ortega, Director of Paranacidade and Secretary of Urban Development and Public Works for Parana State, gave some valuable closing remarks.
In his closing speech, João Carlos Ortega mentioned how the COVID-19 pandemic is imposing a hard time on the finance of municipalities and this is one of the reasons why there needs to be a shift towards investment in green energy.
The generation of clean energy, as an alternate source of power, relieves the cost of expenditure in fossil fuels which, in the long terms, provides an opportunity to invest in other sectors. Also, it is a good action in combating climate change and promoting sustainability for the environment.
With this new partnership, “we are creating a new history”, said João Carlos Ortega. Together, the CFF and Paranacidade will work together on actions related to the generation of clean energy as well as to support municipalities in the elaboration of projects that have met the most difficulties in attracting investment.
The meeting was also attended by: Selene Aparicio, Regional Engagement Manager for Latin America of the CFF, Aris Moro, Senior Manager of Knowledge and Partnerships for the CFF, and Camila Mileke Scucatto, Director of Operations for Paranacidade.