come2CoM

B.&S.U. Beratungs- und Service-Gesellschaft Umwelt mbH supports climate-conscious municipalities to join the

Covenant of Mayors and to achieve ambitious targets to reduce CO₂ emissions.

The climate cannot be protected without the assistance of active municipalities. Cities and towns have recognised their key role in mitigating climate change and would like to lead by example with the implementation of local sustainable energy policies.

Two years ago, the European Commission launched the “Covenant of Mayors” initiative under the heading “fighting climate change locally”. The aim was to recognise the work carried out by municipalities to mitigate climate change and to encourage public participation.

Signatories to the Covenant of Mayors commit to go beyond current European objectives and cut CO₂ emissions by at least 20% by 2020.

A Baseline Emission Inventory provides a foundation for Covenant Signatories to develop a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP). The SEAP sets out a specific CO₂ reduction target by 2020 and defines the strategy and measures that local authorities will undertake to achieve it.

Specifically, Covenant Signatories agree to:

Go beyond the 2020 objectives to cut CO₂ emissions by at least 20%;
Submit a Sustainable Energy Action Plan within a year of signing the Covenant, which contains a Baseline Emission Inventory and defines how the objectives will be achieved;
Submit an implementation report for evaluation and monitoring every two years after the submission of the SEAP;
Organise energy days in cooperation with the European Commission and other stakeholders, to allow citizens to discover the opportunities and benefits of using energy intelligently and to regularly inform the local media on the development of the SEAP;
Actively participate in the annual EU Conference of Mayors.

There are now over 2,000 municipalities that have become signatories to the Covenant of Mayors and they make up a large network of mutual support and exchange.

“We receive our motivation to develop sustainable energy policies from other cities across Europe and can, in return, encourage other cities to be active in mitigating climate change,” said one of the German signatory municipalities. “We can make achievements globally through local and community-based solutions as part of the Covenant of Mayors and improve the quality of life of our citizens.”

There are further advantages to joining the Covenant of Mayors:

The work of the municipality will be made easier with the clear policy target of a cut in CO₂ emissions of at least 20 % by 2020.
Using a CO₂ balance, the main sources of CO₂ emissions can be identified and on this basis, the most effective projects and activities to significantly reduce CO₂ emissions can be chosen.
Many municipalities have been active in intelligent local energy policy for several years. The Covenant of Mayors presents the opportunity to structure individual projects and activities within one strategy, to regularly monitor them and to communicate these activities to the public.
The SEAP helps municipalities to reduce their energy costs.
The European Energy Award® (eea) has been recognised as an effective instrument for the implementation of the Covenant of Mayors, which lessens the amount of work in preparing and implementing the SEAP for eea municipalities. If the eea municipality has already carried out a CO₂ balance, e.g. as part of a Communal Climate Protection Concept, the additional work can be reduced to a minimum.

Twelve partners from eleven European countries have joined the project come2CoM (“come to the Covenant of Mayors”) under the coordination of B.&S.U.mbH.

Funded by the Intelligent Energy – Europe (IEE) programme, come2CoM supports active municipalities that want to reduce their CO₂ emissions, to join the Covenant of Mayors and to fulfil the requirements.

“The project “come2CoM” supports the work of the EU Commission and the Covenant of Mayors in the implementation of sustainable energy policies,” explained one of the project partners. “As energy agencies and energy advisory services, we are close to communities in towns and cities. We know their needs and their problems, and we speak their language. The project also enables us to be involved in a close European network and receive first-hand information from Brussels. We would like to support towns and municipalities with these skills to take on a leading role in climate change mitigation and to enable them to implement an intelligent local energy policy.”

As the German project partner, the B.&S.U. Beratungs- und Service-Gesellschaft Umwelt mbH supports municipalities in Germany, in cooperation with the EnergieAgentur.NRW, to:

Prepare a draft resolution for the town or city council and submit the membership documents to the Covenant of Mayors;
Select suitable CO₂ balancing tools;
Develop an SEAP, which contains short and medium-term activities for the implementation of the overall strategy;
Form networks with other municipalities in Germany and Europe;
Continuously monitor progress and the results.

Our support service is free of charge to municipalities participating in come2CoM.

Please get in touch for more information:

Contact:
Anke Merziger

Tel.: +49 (0) 30-39042-54
E-Mail: amerziger@bsu-berlin.de

The project is partly funded by the EU programme Intelligent Energy Europe.

Downloads

Final report

Report about methodologies applied

Evaluation report

Links

Videoclip about the Covenant of Mayors

Heizspiegel für Kommunen