Rêve Jura Léman mobilised sixteen local authorities, eight French and eight Swiss, to test the European Energy Award certification process in France based on the Swiss experience. It resulted in the awarding of the French Cit'ergie status and certification of the eight French local authorities. Cit'ergie status rewards a local authority’s climate/air/energy policy and the actions deriving from it for four years. The project also enabled the European “Display” Campaign to be developed in the sixteen local authorities.
- 09 February 2017
Implementation of Cit’ergie certification in France with the certification of 8 French local authorities based on the Swiss Energy City (Cité de l’énergie) experience is the most outstanding result in terms of outcomes. It results directly from the Rêve Jura Léman project. It’s a good example of success for a European project.
The eight French local authorities pioneering the Cit'ergie certification process are: Besançon, Communauté d’Agglomération du Grand Besançon, Echirolles, Grenoble Alpes Métropole, Communauté de communes du Jura Dolois, Communauté d’Agglomération du Pays de Montbéliard, Evian-les-Bains and Montmélian.
The Swiss local authorities, who already had their own certification scheme under the Energy City designation, contributed the lessons they had learned. Rêve Jura Léman enabled tools and methodology to be adapted to the French context and the first Cit'ergie advisors to be trained.
“We realised that this coaching process was of great interest and that it could be adapted to French local authorities. ADEME was a very important partner, which kept track of the entire experiment and then deployed it nationally”, explained Christiane Maurer, senior project manager with Energy Cities. Since then, around a hundred local authorities in France have either been Cit'ergie certified or are in the process of doing so. And Besançon is one of two French cities to receive local authorities GOLD certification, awarded to local authorities where the percentage of action items implemented is greater than 75 %. “For the recipients, this certification is a mark of recognition and a plus point for city branding”, assures Christiane Maurer. Indirectly, the employment market has been stimulated by the increase in expertise among design office specialists trained by ADEME in the certification methodology to become Cit'ergie advisors.
Rêve Jura Léman has also encouraged Swiss local authorities to participate in the European “Display” Campaign, a campaign to display energy performance for public buildings, led by Energy Cities.
Through the Rêve Jura Léman project, inhabitants benefit directly from actions implemented by local authorities relating to energy saving, energy-related housing refurbishment, development of renewable energy or sustainable transport. Moreover, communities that worked together remained in contact to share any lessons learned.
Rêve Jura Léman has therefore facilitated development of the Dream of the Future (Rêve d’Avenir) project within the 2007-2013 programme, which has brought together sixteen French and eleven Swiss communities with a common aim of working on mobilising local stakeholders. “It has advanced our thinking on this issue. Today we have a mobilisation club in Bourgogne-Franche Comté, studying coaching for positive changes in behaviour with regard to energy and climate”, Christiane Maurer recounts.
Total investment and EU funding
A total of EUR 3 517 682 was invested in the “Rêve Jura Léman” project. The European Regional Development Fund contributed EUR 1 330 567 under the INTERREG France-Switzerland III A 2000-2006 programme for the 2000-2006 programming period. The investment falls under the priority of “environment”.