Romania’s most important cities will allocate to green investments of over €19.1 billion, between 2023 and 2030 (CRPE report)

Romania’s most important cities will allocate to green investments (including those co-financed by European funds) over €19.1 billion between 2023 and 2030, shows a report recently published by The Romanian Center for European Policies.

„This is an optimistic scenario, where 30% of local budget spending will be allocated to development, compared to an average of 20% between 2017 and 2022. Bucharest and its six sectors have an investment potential reaching almost €7 billion over the period 2023-2030, followed by cities such as Timisoara (€922 million), Iasi (€940 million) or Cluj Napoca (€913 million). However, this amount is significantly below the value of the project portfolios for the period analyzed and can only partially cover what we have identified as green investments”, according to the report quoted above.

The full analysis published by CRPE: 

„What is the role of green investments in the future of Romanian cities? A review of local development strategies is a pilot analysis of the green component of local development strategies, including by linking to available local government funding for capital investment for the period 2023-2030, assumed targets for improving the state of the environment in the urban areas and the role of the local communities in drafting and approving these key documents at the local level.

Ideally, local development strategies – which are the most important strategic documents at local level, as they include the whole portfolio of projects and provide mechanisms for prioritizing investments – should support strategic planning, targets and indicators assumed by the local authorities and the development vision. They identify and prioritize public investments and indicate the evolution of local development objectives in a structured manner. The reason why we say “ideally” is because in the Romanian administration the planning component, i.e., the monitoring and evaluation of these strategies, is deficient, with little public data available to assess the degree of achievement of the targets assumed.

At CRPE, we analyzed from a green perspective the project portfolios that are part of the development strategies of the county capital municipalities and the city halls of Bucharest for the current programming period (2021-2027). We built a methodology for selecting green projects or projects with a substantial green component in order to better understand the focus of public administrations in Romania ahead of decades that will prioritize green investments. The report, we hope, presents the vision of the most important municipalities in Romania in terms of sustainable development and (re)focusing of public investments towards the major objective that is climate neutrality.

Green investments prioritized by the Romanian cities for the 2023-2030 period: According to our calculations, Romania’s most important cities will allocate capital investments (including those co-financed by European funds) of over €19.1 billion between 2023 and 2030. This is an optimistic scenario, where 30% of local budget spending will be allocated to development, compared to an average of 20% between 2017 and 2022. Bucharest and its six sectors have an investment potential reaching almost €7 billion over the period 2023-2030, followed by cities such as Timisoara (€922 million), Iasi (€940 million) or Cluj Napoca (€913 million). However, this amount is significantly below the value of the project portfolios for the period analyzed and can only partially cover what we have identified as green investments.

What we have categorized as green investments or investments with a significant green component represent a portfolio of projects of at least € 19.2 billion out of a total of over €95.4 billion, divided into the following investment types: C1 (Air Quality) – 3.28 billion, C2 (Water Quality) – €1.3 billion, C3 (Urban Biodiversity) – €2.66 billion, C4 (Waste and Circular Economy) – €1.3 billion, C5 (Noise Pollution) – €0.14 billion and C6 (Energy Efficiency) – €10.5 billion.

Significant planned energy efficiency budgets dominate the project portfolios both in terms of estimated values and in terms of number of projects. Historical backlogs in public infrastructure, a preference for visible and more achievable projects, and a timid approach to greening and pollution reduction processes in big cities that could lead to lost votes (on issues such as road traffic, stricter waste policy, noise, heating, or air pollution) cause these portfolios to be focused around more achievable goals.

Involving citizens in setting priorities in local development strategies

Most local development strategies indicate tools for citizen consultation, but this key chapter on community participation in strategy development is often treated very superficially. Not many details are provided about the consultation process, its duration, or its results. A limited number of participation tools are included (in most cases only online questionnaires and thematic working groups) which almost never succeed in creating greater public participation in the drafting of the strategies, with limited access by citizens.

The analysis includes an in-depth presentation of the tools used for citizen consultation by each Romanian city and best practice examples from Romania and other EU member states.”

Read the full analysis here.

The Romanian version of the report is also available on our website – Ce rol pentru investițiile verzi în viitorul orașelor din România?

This report is part of the Green rights for a sustainable future: Enhancing citizens’ involvement in EU’s climate ambitions (Green-Rights) project.

Co-funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.