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On 23 January 2008 the European Commission put forth an integrated proposal for Climate Action. You can find all information related to the energy aspects of the Climate Action proposal on this website. |
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Covenant of Mayors Sustainable Energy Cities take the lead on climate change: the Covenant of Mayors Call for tenders: Support services for the Covenant of Mayors
On 29 January 2008 Commissioner Piebalgs presented, on behalf of the European Commission, the procedure to launch a Covenant of Mayors, the most ambitious initiative to date involving the citizens in the fight against global warming. On 30 April 2008 the public information procedure for defining the core text of the Covenant of Mayors was finalised. Many European cities and regions, their associations and other stakeholders have actively contributed to the definition of the Covenant. The Covenant consists of the formal commitment of the pioneering cities joining it to go beyond the objectives of the EU in terms of reducing their CO2 emissions through energy demand and renewable energy actions. More than 160 cities all over Europe have expressed early interest to sign up to the Covenant. Now it is time to formalise those expressions of interest! The Covenant of Mayors is a result-oriented initiative, focusing on concrete projects and measurable results. The adhering cities and regions will formally commit to reduce their CO2 emission more than 20% by 2020. In order to do that, they will develop Sustainable Energy Action Plans within the year following adhesion. Citizens will be informed on the achievements of their respective cities through periodic reports, which can be monitored by a third party. In order to reinforce the commitment to concrete results, and as a consequence of requests from the most committed cities in Europe, the Covenant includes an exclusion clause in case of non-compliance. The Commission will support the contribution of the best sustainable energy practices in the world to the Covenant cities and regions through a 'benchmarks for excellence' mechanism. The Commission intends also to negotiate the terms of the involvement of other major stakeholders in the Covenant. A Covenant secretariat, funded through the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, will facilitate monitoring, networking and promotion tasks of this new challenge. Now it is time to formalise adhesions to the Covenant, for the first year of operation. From now until 15 January 2009, the interested cities may decide according to their respective democratic procedures their adhesion to the Covenant. Within the year following adhesion they will submit a Sustainable Energy Action Plan justifying how they intend to reach the reductions of CO2 emissions. Periodic implementation reports will ensue. In February 2009, all signatory authorities will attend, togther with top representatives of the EU institutions, the prestigious signature ceremony central event of the EU Sustainable Energy Week in the 2009 edition. In parallel, a number of high level debates and events will take place to work out the terms of participation of financial entities and the benchmarks for excellence in the Covenant. An open forum to discuss ideas and contributions to the Covenant is also open at http://www.managenergy.net/meforum/ The fonctional mailbox will continue to be open as the preferred communication channel for the Covenant of Mayors Translations of the final version are beig prepared now. We hope to upload them in this site very soon. Please watch this space for updated news on the process.
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| last update: 13-10-2008 |
13/10/2008
26/09/2008
