Project aims to help Coordinators and Supporters (C&S) of the Covenant of Mayors in assisting their small and medium-sized municipalities in SEAPs implementation and monitoring by offering them targeted trainings, tutoring and coaching schemes. A tailor-made twinning programme on strategies for evaluation of SEAPs, including methodologies for implementation, information on financial opportunities, and how to improve communication and support with municipalities, will be held for C&S.

A wide selection of tools will also be made available on the project website. 

In addition, national trainings for C&S will take place in Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Poland, and Spain. Selected C&S can benefit by participating in an international coaching and peer-review schemes with partners in the consortium. Priority will be given to C&S currently supporting implementation and monitoring SEAPs outside of the above target countries.

Objectives and main steps:

Building the capacity of Covenant of Mayors Coordinators and Supporters (C&S) in assisting cities for the implementation and monitoring of the action of their SEAPs will be achieved by spreading the best existing experiences and tools available to C&S themselves through training and tutoring activities. C&S, in turn, will build capacity of municipalities through training, coaching and peer-to-peer grouping. The approach is not just theoretical and extensive fieldwork for actual implementation and monitoring of actions is provided.

Expected impacts:

• Training, tutoring and coaching schemes activated
• 24 C&S tutored for SEAP implementation and monitoring and many more involved in training activities;
• 40 municipalities coached, trained and suppported for SEAP implementation and monitoring
• 120 SEAP action implemented within the project;
• 277 773 554 € spent in total for energy investments;
• increase in the production of energy from renewable sources by 2 469 toe/year;
• reducing consumption of primary energy by 3 701 toe/year;
• reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 29 563 t CO_2e/year.

Project duration: 1 March 2014 – 28 February 2017 (36 months)

Co-financing: Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme

Project participants:

An experienced consortium of 9 partners from 7 EU countries:

1. Province of Genova (Coordinator) - www.provincia.genova.it
2. Province of Barcelona - www.diba.cat
3. CRES - www.cres.gr
4. City of Zagreb - www.zagreb.hr
5. PNEC - www.pnec.org.pl
6. VENETO Region - www.regione.veneto.it
7. SOGESCA - www.sogesca.it
8. INTERLEUVEN  - www.interleuven.be
9. ICLEI Europe - www.iclei-europe.org

Project beneficiaries:

• Local Authorities, Covenant of Mayors signatories having SEAP developed and accepted
• Covenant Coordinators and Covenant Supporters, local and Regional Energy Agencies and other technical structures that work with LAs in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors
• Key actors involved at local level in the development, implementation and monitoring of EnMS+SEAPs in Local Authorities (utilities, financial institutions, NGOs, trade associations, etc.)
• Actors directly involved in the certification process of the EnMS at local level according to ISO50001 (certification and accreditation bodies)

The project is co-financed from the Intelligent Energy Europe (IEE) programme. The sole responsibility for the content of this publication lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission are responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.