Analysis of the Covenant of Mayors Initiative in Sicily

GHG action zone identification at the local level: Emissions inventory and spatial distribution as methodologies for policies and plans

In 2008, the European Commission established the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), a voluntary initiative to involve and support local authorities in pursuing the European Union's climate change mitigation and adaptation goals. This study proposes a methodology to evaluate the effectiveness of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) and Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) in terms of reducing carbon dioxide emissions in the regions of Apulia and Sicily. The CO2 emissions are analyzed at the provincial level, before and after the approval of the plans by the municipal council, using homogeneous consumption data from national sources, rather than from data declared by the CoM signatories themselves. The methodology adopted combines the analysis of variance and compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of emissions, both total and per capita, with an assessment of the level of involvement of municipalities and the population in CoM plans. Through Pearson's coefficient, the correlation between the spread of plans and emissions at the provincial level was also assessed. The main results show that Apulia and Sicily, with a share of approved plans of 45.5% and 87.7%, respectively, experienced a reduction in total emissions of 12.1% and 21.2%, and per capita of 9.3% and 18.7%, in the period after municipalities submitted their SEAPs or SECAPs. A greater effectiveness of the plans is denoted in Sicilian provinces than in Apulian ones. These findings underscore the importance of emissions monitoring by signatory local governments, particularly through a uniform methodology, as well as monitoring at the provincial and regional levels, implemented by the Covenant Territorial Coordinators (CTCs), to assess the implementation of the action plans and ensure that regional and national emission reduction targets are met.

Territorial energetic and environmental planning provides operational solidity to the concept of sustainable development, in particular in energy-related issues, where recent attention to and social awareness of climate change are driving actions and policies at local and international levels. The goals of the United Nations Agenda 2030 can be reached through the strategy of glocalization, giving more responsibility to local administrations like municipalities. In this work, a scientific methodology is developed and validated to revise Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP) and the monitoring phase of municipalities. The methodology starts from measured data in the territory considered and makes use of specific statistical models in order to estimate the needed data. The methodology considers the energy consumption of the main sectors: residential, transportation, tertiary, and commercial, with a particular focus on municipal competences (public lighting, urban transport, municipal fleet, etc.). Renewable energy is also considered due to its importance in local energy production. In order to go deeper into SEAPs, in this paper, the authors describe the quantitative analysis of the Baseline Emission Inventory, the quantification of the SEAP planning actions, and the definition of the Monitoring Emission Inventory, which is the final step of the planning process. This step was done for nine municipalities of the Abruzzo region with different characteristics (size, population, climate, geographical position, economy, etc.) in order to widen the results of the analysis and test the robustness of the methodology. Indeed, it gave a quantitative dimension to the primary energy consumption and CO2 emissions for 2018, compared with the 2005 baseline values, and the final results are related to the reduction commitments planned for 2020. All the municipalities were considered to have achieved this goal, surpassing the 20% emissions reduction. This validated methodology is also the basis for the development of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs), which integrate adaptation actions and mitigation ones.

Advanced tool for elaborating a sustainable energy and climate action plan at municipalities level

Evaluation of Bursa metropolitan greenhouse Gas inventory and reduction targets

Climate change caused by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) levels released in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is threatening our ecosystem. A radical change in the behavior of humanity is thus needed urgently. One of the major challenges is to replace our current energy systems with sustainable systems in the face of environmental degradation. For this purpose, and as part of the European initiatives, the Covenant of Mayors is enabling municipalities, cities and regions to carry out actions in the fields of energy and climate. In this framework, a newly-developed tool, the SECAP-SSP or Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan–Self Sufficient Program, is applied by the Municipality of Hammana-Lebanon (standard process) in order to design its Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) and ensure compliance with the Covenant of Mayors. This case study has resulted in a broad understanding of how to use this tool, or even to show that SECAP-SSP has greatly simplified the task compared to the conventional tools that have been used before. It should be noted that SECAP-SSP can be applied by any municipality in Lebanon and can be extended to suit the South-Mediterranean context. Every authority could create its “SECAP” space online. The various human activities in all sectors (residential, tertiary, industry, transportation, agriculture, electricity generation, etc.) involving energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions are the specific data that the user must enter. The structure of the software facilitates the work to be done in each sector. Other data on climate, the availability of renewable energy and the current price of fossil fuels are provided by the tool. Indicators (economic, environmental and potential) to achieve optimization are calculated by the tool. In the end, SECAP-SSP established a Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) for the authority as well as it suggested the SECAP, feasible and profitable both economically and environmentally.

Integration of solar photovoltaic energy systems to urban planning is one of the key priorities of local authorities who cares the global warming threat. “Covenant of Mayors” (CoM), which is the most extensive association of local governments in the world, has started serious works on fighting against climate change and required the local governments’ preparation of sustainable energy action plans (SEAP). Bornova Municipality has calculated its reference greenhouse gas emission inventory as 31,432 t CO2e (CO2 equivalent) in the SEAP delivered to the CoM on February 7th, 2013. In accordance with the CoM goal, it has committed to reduce its greenhouse gas emission value by 25% by 2020 and realized the installation of a 300 kWp photovoltaic power system (PVPS) in 2013 as the most important project. The main objective of this study is to use the real-time data of 300 kWp plant and evaluate its contribution to the reduction of greenhouse gas emission. Moreover, usable potential roof surface areas of the service buildings of Bornova Municipality have been calculated and the contribution of the increase of the PVPS capacity to the goal of greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020 has been studied.

Geographical Information System as Support Tool for Sustainable Energy Action Plan

Since 2008 many municipalities in the European Union have taken part in the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative and have developed Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP) to contribute to climate change mitigation. To respond to new policy goals for 2030, the CoM has expanded its focus and since 2018 requires municipalities to cover climate adaptation actions. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the first experiences of six municipalities from Spain, Portugal and Latvia in upgrading their existing Sustainable Energy Actions Plans to Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP). SECAPs were developed through a participatory process involving all relevant local stakeholders, to gain maximum understanding and acceptance. Each municipality implemented climate adaption actions to demonstrate the need for adaptation and the ways it can be accomplished.

Renewable energy sources in local sustainable energy action PLANs (SEAPs): analysis and outcomes

Energy planning tools play a key role in achieving sustainable development goals and in the energy transition toward a zero-carbon future. Energy security and decentralization are, as well, additional benefits from a rational energy planning applied to a territory. In particular, the relevance of territorial energy planning grows at the local scale, the peculiarities of a territory being a key point. This is especially true for Municipalities, which represent the smallest units with political responsibility. Cities are often the most unsustainable environments, being responsible for 75% of global energy use, 70% of global CO2 emissions, and considering that the percentage of the global population living in cities is expanding from 50% in 2022 to 70% in 2050. In this regard, the European Community has already designed a specific energy planning tool, called SECAPs (Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans), an evolution of SEAPs (Sustainable Environmental Action Plans) that allows the quantification of energy flowing throughout the territory to support the local economy. The greenhouse gases emission commitments are, as well, considered and could be fulfilled being the cornerstone of the European deal on climate change. Waiting for a zero Carbon economy, the intention of the cited plans is to propose mitigation and adaptation actions to delay or to react to climate change manifestations. A formidable new planning tool is certainly “Energy Communities”, where cities, public and private companies, citizens, energy producers and consumers (so called prosumers) can share renewable energy in whatever form is locally available, improving energy security and partial independence from the grid. The paper presents, for a small/medium size Italian city located in the Apennine Mountain hinterland some criteria to design energy communities demonstrating how the potential energy generation based on renewable sources can fulfil energy demand when an Energy Community is organized. The starting point is the knowledge of thermal and electricity consumptions available from SEAPs. Hourly load profiles for them were reconstructed and coupled to renewable energy production availability which is a peculiarity of a territory. Thanks to a suitable diversification of energy production, the fulfilment of the energy needs can be achieved with only a residual grid assistance. Consistency is given to the concept of energy resilience.

The reducing use of fossil fuels and greenhouse gas emissions is one of the main aims of urban planning. These objectives directly involve urban activities which are responsible for 80% of energy consumption and CO2 emissions and indirectly the transport sector which contributes in the range of 20%–40% in terms of consumption of fossil fuels and emissions of greenhouse gases and particulate matter. In this context, the simulation, the evaluation and the implementation of sustainable mobility policies are a crucial challenge for decision makers and analysts. At this aim, the paper proposes an integrated modelling framework which, following a bottom-up approach, combines a transportation simulation model (demand, supply and supply-demand interaction) with traffic fuel consumption and vehicle emission models. The aim was twofold: 1) specify and implement a modelling framework characterised by a level of detail not usual in literature and able to estimate fuel consumptions and greenhouse gas emissions with respect to any transportation scenario; 2) investigate the effects of different transport policies by applying the system of models. The proposed methodology was implemented to the urban context of Salerno municipality (Southern Italy), within the development of the sustainable energy action plan.

To ensure European Union (EU) commitments to the Kyoto protocol, on 29 January 2008 the European Commission launched the Covenant of Mayors (CoM). This is an initiative aimed at unilateral and voluntary participation of European cities in energy efficiency improvement, renewable energy source usage increase, and greenhouse gas emission reduction by 2020. The Municipality of Genoa, Italy, joined the initiative on February 2009 and its Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP), aimed at a 23.7% CO2 reduction by 2020, has been the first among European cities to be officially published by the European Commission. Following a description of EU environmental policies concerning the energy sector and related regulatory framework, this paper presents issues of CoM and SEAP from an overall standpoint and their application in the city of Genoa. The SEAP approach and criteria, initially considered at a general level, are then analyzed in detail with their operational consequences regarding the city. The Baseline Emission Inventory for the city, preparation of the SEAP, its implementation in the various sectors involved (buildings, renewable energy sources, transport, public policy, and others) are analyzed. Eventually, the SEAP monitoring strategy is addressed, considering assessment of the implemented actions, biennial monitoring report, and dynamic management of the CoM. In this way, a useful benchmark is provided to those facing this issue and, more generally, to those dealing with the management of energy sustainability at various levels.

Widening the perspective in greenhouse gas emissions accounting: The way forward for supporting climate and energy policies at municipal level

Mitigating Curtailment and Carbon Emissions through Load Migration between Data Centers