EC Receives First Energy Action Plans Under Covenant of Mayors
November 2, 2009 // Published as a news service by IHS
On Oct. 30, the European Commission (EC) received the first 39 Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) under the Covenant of Mayors initiative.
The SEAPs were received from representatives of the Diputació de Barcelona, the provincial council of Barcelona, Spain.
Mayors participating in the Covenant of Mayors must create SEAPs within one year of signing the covenant, which entails drafting assessments of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, diagnosis and strategy documents, plus action, participation and monitoring plans.
The final step is developing an overall action plan, which will be submitted to the EC and published on the Covenant of Mayors web site.
The Diputació de Barcelona was one of the first supporting structures to the Covenant of Mayors, offering both technical and financial support for the development of individual SEAPs by the covenant signatories. By the end of August 2009, 105 of the Barcelona's municipalities had signed up, covering 88% of the province's total population of 4,527,988.
Supporting structures have a key role in helping smaller public authorities complete the technically challenging SEAP creation process. However, this process can be made easier by following the SEAP on-line template, which is now available through the Covenant of Mayors web site.
The newly submitted SEAPs came from municipalities in the Barcelona province, with populations ranging from 300 to 200,000 inhabitants, that plan to reduce emissions by nearly one million tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020. The estimated reductions for all 105 participating Barcelona municipalities by 2020 will be over 3.6 million tons. The current total emissions for these municipalities is 19.1 million tons.
"The Covenant of Mayors has reached the stage of maturity. With 900 cities on board and 40 supporting structures, I am proud to say the Covenant has become an unprecedented movement of local and regional authorities," said EC Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
"The first 39 Sustainable Energy Action Plans delivered today by the Barcelona Province clearly demonstrate that regions and provinces play a crucial role in changing our energy landscape and make a key contribution in the fight against climate change. It is a breakthrough, as we are moving from preparation to action."
Background
The European Union (EU) is leading the global fight against climate change, making it a top priority. Its ambitious targets are spelled out in the EU Climate Action and Renewable Energy Package, which commits EU member states to curb their CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020.
Signatories to the Covenant of Mayors agree to contribute to these EU policy objectives through a formal commitment to go beyond this target through the implementation of an individual Sustainable Energy Action Plan. So far, 907 European cities have joined the Covenant of Mayors.
For more information, see the Covenant of Mayors web site.
Source: European Commission (EC).