News

The jury of the green idea competition Negavatt organised by the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) held virtual meetings with the top 20 teams and selected ten ideas that will continue to compete for the €10,000 grand prize. The best of the competition will be announced on 8 June. In total, Negavatt received a record 113 ideas this season!

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) opened an application round for the preparation of local government climate and energy plans, within the framework of which local governments have the opportunity to add the climate and energy sector to already existing development plans or prepare a separate plan for a specific region. The budget for the round is EUR 400,000 and the deadline for submitting applications is 26 April 2021.

This year, for the first time, the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) will open application rounds for the European Economic Area (EEA) grants that will help mitigate and adapt to climate change. Donor countries Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway will direct EUR 6 million to Estonia for the implementation of environmental and climate projects.

To date, the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) has made all decisions related to the second round of the grant for purchasing electric vehicles, the acceptance of applications for which ended in mid-December after only half an hour thanks to great interest. A total of 32 private individuals and 28 companies, who will be purchasing a total of 114 new electric vehicles, received a positive response. The total amount of grant is EUR 570,000.

Until 21 February, all young people aged 18 to 30 are once again able to submit their ideas to the EIC’s green idea competition Negavatt. The ten best teams will complete a substantial training programme and will receive EUR 1000 in the form of development funds to fuel their hunt for the competition’s grand prize of EUR 10,000 – intended to bring their idea to life – at the beginning of June.

On 11 January, the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) opened an application round for environmental projects supported from State funds, which welcomes local governments, non-profit associations, foundations, entrepreneurs, universities, educational institutions, apartment associations and sole proprietors to submit projects. The budget for the round is EUR 11,828,000, and the deadline for submitting applications is 1 March 2021.

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) together with the Land Board added to the map the restored areas of semi-natural biotic communities along with the grants and the investments necessary for their maintenance, which have been supported via application rounds for European Union structural funds.

The Environmental Investment Centre (EIC) has opened a call for applications to help organise the recycling of biodegradable waste. More specifically, this concerns waste water sediment, kitchen and canteen waste, and garden and landscaping waste.

“Considering the obligation to collect more and more bio-waste at the source where the waste is generated, there is a growing need to recycle it,” explains Minister of the Environment Rain Epler. “There are also new ways to reuse waste water sediment. This is why we decided to support investment in such solutions.”

The environmentally friendliest local government in Estonia in 2019 was Saaremaa Rural Municipality. The city of Rakvere and the city of Tartu were also nominated for the competition organised by the Ministry of the Environment and the Environmental Investment Centre (EIC).