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A more engaged sustainable development for European cities

Fabrizio Barbaso, Deputy Director-General, Directorate-General for Energy

1. What’s the main context of the creation of the Covenant of Mayors?

The Covenant of Mayors was launched in 2008, as a priority for action at local and regional level within the EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan. The Covenant consists of the formal commitment by City Councils to go beyond the EU objective of 20% reduction of CO2 emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy actions. Covenant cities must submit, within one year following their adhesion, a Sustainable Energy Action Plan to the 2020 horizon, outlining the policies and measures conducting to such objectives. Once every two years, the Covenant cities and regions will submit public reports, to show the state of implementation of the Action Plan. Signatories accept termination of their involvement in the Covenant in case of non-compliance.

2. Five hundred Mayors have signed the agreement at a ceremony held at the Parliament on May 4th 2010. What is the role of local authorities in the fight against climate change?



Local authorities have a key role in mitigating climate change and I am delighted to witness the growth of the initiative which now has more than 1600 cities and regions on board. Cities and regions have the capacity to act on the most relevant sectors of our energy demand. If most European regions and cities joined the Covenant of Mayors, more than half of the work to attain our 20% target would be done!


In fact, over half of greenhouse gas emissions are created in and by cities. 80% of the population lives and works in cities, where up to 80% of energy is consumed. Local authorities, being the closest administration to the citizens are ideally positioned to understand their concerns. Moreover, they can address the challenges in a comprehensive way, facilitating the conciliation between the public and private interest and the integration of sustainable energy into overall local development goals, be it development of alternative energy more efficient energy use or changes in behaviour.
Local governments must therefore become leading actors for implementing sustainable energy policies, and must be recognised and supported in their effort.



3.What are the methods established by the European Commission to help the signatories of the Convention to fulfil their commitments?



In order to facilitate the mobilisation of funds for investments in sustainable energy at local level, the European Commission and the European Investment Bank have established the ELENA technical assistance facility, financed through the Intelligent Energy-Europe. ELENA covers up to 90% of the costs associated to technical assistance for making city and region sustainable energy projects eligible for EIB funding. This facility, that will likely mobilise close to €2 billion in new sustainable energy investments before the end of this year, aims to develop investment projects and programmes in cities that can be replicated in other cities or regions.

Moreover, the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission has together with the Covenant of Mayors office and experienced cities developed the sound methodological framework for the preparation of inventories of emissions and developing of action plans. This framework enables to exploit and replicate existing experiences, monitor the implementation of the Covenant, thereby providing a solid basis for empowerment of local authorities.

In addition, the ManagEnergy initiative provides networking and capacity building for local and regional energy agencies as well as to other local energy actors.

The Commission also intends to launch two new initiatives that, if approved, should provide strong support to the regional and local authorities. Firstly, the launch of a new Energy Efficiency Strategy for Europe which should contain a chapter dedicated to regional and local actors, proposing specific measures and programmes. The new Strategy will not only recognise the crucial role cities and regions play to achieve our targets, but also include proposals to support them. Secondly, the re-utilisation of unspent funds in the European Economic Recovery package for sustainable energy developments at regional and local level is foreseen.


4. Is being a signatory a plus when responding to certain EC calls for proposals?



No. Each proposal is evaluated on its own merits, according to the given selection and evaluation criteria. Nevertheless, having prepared and implemented a good Sustainable Energy Action Plan allows local authorities to exploit financial opportunities more efficiently.