Municipalities develop and implement their Energy Strategy through EEA standards!

Climate change, as a global problem, has to be tackled first at the local level to be solved and municipalities are at the forefront to implement global and innovative solutions. They have ambitious goals but often lack harmonized, interdepartmental and long-term structures to successfully implement their climate and energy strategies. The IMPLEMENT Project started from those observations, and focuses on capacity building in municipalities.

The project IMPLEMENT- Improving Local Energy and climate policy through quality management and certification has been funded under Horizon 2020 programme. By introducing the quality management and certification system European Energy Award (eea) in Belgium, Croatia, Greece and Poland, the project aims at setting up the necessary structures to carry out the programme in municipalities in the new target regions. The project started in february 2018 and will continue for a total of 48 months until 2022. The budget amounts to 1.389.615€, with a full coverage by Horizon 2020 funds.

Through this project, 30 pilot municipalities will further develop and implement their climate and energy strategy by using the eea standards with a detailed set of recommendable measures. Accredited eea advisors will guide and monitor the continuous progress, while certification will ensure that municipalities implement their climate and energy plans according to high quality standards. The municipality’s experiences and successes will pave the way for more municipalities in the target regions to join the eea.

IMPLEMENT’s objective is to set up the necessary structures for a long-term roll-out of the eea in the partner countries. Partners will translate and adapt all eea tools to national context, receive adequate training to become skilled eea advisors, able to advice and guide pilot municipalities through the eea process. The consortium together with regional authorities will develop, based on experience exchange with eea expert regions, feasibility studies and business plans, tailor-made support schemes for the participating countries.

Project Partner Meeting in Zagreb.

4 main objectives are addressed through this project:

• Roll out the European Energy Award quality management system and certification scheme in four EU member states: The partners will introduce and roll out a successful international quality management programme for local climate policy implementation, in 12 regions in four countries. Also national eea offices and steering committees involving stakeholders from different governance levels, will be set up.
• Capacity Building: empower municipalities to implement climate strategies based on integrated energy and climate plans: An interdepartmental energy team from each municipality will prepare an energy policy programme (30 in total), which will outline a set of binding activities, responsibilities, budgets and deadlines for the subsequent years
• Measureable energy, CO₂ and costs savings as well as increasing production and consumption of renewable energy in 30 pilot municipalities: During the project period, 30 pilot municipalities will receive external guidance in putting their energy policies into practice. Municipalities will assess and plan activities in 6 areas of activity: Development & spatial planning, municipal buildings & facilities, supply & disposal, mobility, internal organisation and communication & cooperation.
• Certification of municipalities ensuring quality standards and positive recognition: As part of the eea process, the work done by the energy teams will be moderated and reviewed by accredited  eea advisors. At the end of the project all achievements will be assessed by an external eea-auditor. These audits will lead to certifications and depending on the success rate, the European Energy Award will be granted.