Facing different challenges

Today communities are facing many challenges: a changing climate, rising fuel prices, environmental degradation and a wide range of socio-economic pressures – and especially challenging budget cuts. Energy is central to all these issues. We need energy every day, and we have to pay for it.

Yet, we also need to reduce our impact on global warming by reducing the release of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. We need to be clever with our budgets and try to avoid paying more and more for energy. This means we need to focus on improving energy security – meaning affordable, stable energy, ideally locally produced from local resources.
In Europe there are many relevant developments addressing the transition to sustainable energy:

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• European energy policy
• European climate policy
  
• Energy security
• Useful energy facts:
  • Energy facts from IEA - International Energy Agency
  • REN21 Global Status Report 2011
• Covenant of Mayors initiative

From fossil fuels to sustainable energy

Whole communities and many organisations, business and industry have started switching to sustainable energy solutions. 

What is sustainable energy? 

• Definition of sustainable energy
• What are renewables?
• Energy savings and efficiency options
• It is even possible to become a 100% sustainable energy community!
  More cases showing different approaches
• Roadmap 2050 - a practical, independent and objective analysis of pathways to achieve a low-carbon economy in Europe

The role of local and provincial governments

These aspects can be addressed by developing management and communication capacity of both political leaders, municipal managers, as well as professional staff. The focus here should be on sustainable energy management and developing integrated processes and planning on the basis of sustainability principles, climate and environmental protection, the effective use of local resources, energy security, and community resilience.

• Sustainable energy management processes 
• Integrated management process - A Process Management Landscape Tool was developed to provide step-by-step guidance to an integrated, cyclical, sustainable energy management methodology, providing examples of action by local governments.
•  The project final results brochure “Sustainable NOW – Ways to successful sustainable energy action planning” – highlights on the processes initiated in our partner cities.
  Sustainable NOW Final Public Report – more detailed information on the project and its results.
• Typical mandates and roles of local governments: climate and energy: www.lg-action.eu/countries

Guidance and tools

Decision-making support

• The Local Energy Action Plan (LEAP) wizard - A web-based decision making support tool for local governments presenting case studies of sustainable energy actions in a way that supports optimal replication and decision making by other cities

  

   
• Resource Database – The Toolbox of Methodologies on Climate and Energy is an online collection of tools and resources in many different languages to assist local governments and their partners in planning local climate and energy action (reports, videos, weblinks, etc..) –  
• Local Energy Action Plans developed with support through the Sustainable NOW project:
  • Municipality of Burgas (Bulgaria) 
  • City of Ludwigsburg (Germany)
  • Comunità Montana Lago Trasimeno - Middle Tiber (Italy) 
  • City of Miskolc (Hungary) 
  • Municipality of Rosignano Marittimo (Italy) 

• Aalborg Commitments Implementation Guide is a handbook leading local governments through the Sustainability Cycle st ep by step, and provides support for implementing and setting appropriate targets for the Aalborg Commitments.
• Covenant of Mayors Guidebook -  Based on the practical experiences of cities and developed in close co-operation with the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, this guidebook offers step-by-step guidance and practical recommendations on the entire SEAP development process.
• Balancing citizen welfare with resources available

Greenhouse gas emissions 

• Basic guidance:

  • International Local Government Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Protocol (IEAP) - General principles for all local governments, regardless of location, when inve ntorying GHGs from its government operations and community as a whole - it outlines the type of GHGs, boundaries and scopes to be addressed. 
  • SEAP Guidebook – the Part II is dedicated to the development of CO2(eq) emissions inventory. It defines a set of basic principles on GHG accounting and reporting processes. It also  provides municipalities with some reliable emission factors for the different approaches (territorial vs ‘Life Cycle Assessment’).
  • Sustainable NOW Energy and Emissions Monitoring Report – sharing the city partners’ approaches regarding data collection and monitoring energy projects and emissions reduction developments.

• ICLEI guidance:

   
  • Basic Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory Toolkit of the European Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) Campaign – (free tool, CCP Campaign registration required) - This tool was developed to support local governments with their 1st baseline emissions inventory. The toolkit contains a simple-to-use excel spreadsheet, a guidebook and FAQ to guide municipal staff through their first GHG inventory. It can be used for Cov enant of Mayors reporting.
  • HEAT+ tool - (costs apply) - The Harmonised Emissions Analysis Tool Plus is ICLEI’s newest software for GHG reduction planning and monitoring tool (released in 2011). This tool is available to all local governments in Europe, with a reduced fee for ICLEI members. It is linked to international standards and protocols.

• Climate Alliance guidance, tools and method:

   
  • Climate Alliance has developed a series of supporting documents and guidelines for the elaboration of local climate action plans, such as the CLIMATE COMPASS (incl; step-by-step approach, checklists, catalogue of measures per field of action).
  • ECORegion tool (costs apply) - This internet-based tool (developed in collaboration with Ecospeed) helps local authorities to follow up on progress in terms of CO₂ emissions, and therefore monitor whether they fulfil their commitments. It has been officially recognised by the European Commission as efficient and suitable software for the compilation of energy and CO2 emission inventories within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors. By means of an automatic function, relevant data can be directly exported to fill in the requirements for the BEI in the ‘SEAP template’. It is currently available in six countries (Germany, Luxembourg, Italy, France, Ukraine and Switzerland). 

Financing

• Sustainable NOW Study on Financial Aspects of Projects - an overview of sustainable investment opportunities in the energy sector available to local governments. Guidance to support making an informed choice and listing instruments.
• Financing mechanisms for local governments and regions (grants and/or loans):
  • European Energy Efficiency Fund (EEEF)
  • European Local ENergy Assistance (ELENA)
  • Joint European Support for Sustainable Investment in City Areas (JESSICA)
  • Joint Assistance to Support Projects in European Regions (JASPERS)
  • Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) Programme
  • Covenant of Mayors materials: website section on possible financing instruments & Thematic Leaflet on financing

Changing behavior

• Energy Days guidelines for organisers - promote energy efficiency and/or renewable energy at local events
• The original Local Agenda 21 guide from 1996! Still relevant with useful tips on the process
• Tips and best practices to save costs and consumption and much more - including a competition – in the European Citizens Climate Cup

Sustainable NOW project the focus was on the following elements relevant to SEC development – with relevant resources available in the Toolbox of Methodologies on Climate and Energy! 

Great initiatives – link and connect!