ManagEnergy Newsletter - February 2008
Dear Reader
The launch of the Covenant of Mayors on 29 January 2008 raised a number of questions about the role of local and regional energy actors in the Covenant. In order to assist you in the support of the Covenant, ManagEnergy has created a new Covenant of Mayors section on the website, as well as the ManagEnergy forum, enabling informal discussion of the implications of the Covenant. Video recordings from the launch events, as well as other events during the EU Sustainable Energy week, such as the ManagEnergy Education workshop, the Intelligent Energy - Europe Info Day and a number of other events discussing Sustainable Energy policy and local and regional actions are now available on the ManagEnergy Internet Broadcast website.
This newsletter gives readers further information about these issues and activities, as well as direct access to video recordings via the ManagEnergy VideoCards.
The next issue of the Newsletter, published in early April, will provide further news and updates of relevance to local and regional energy actors.
ManagEnergy editorial team
Contents
European Commission and ManagEnergy activities:
Video recordings from the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW):
Reports from other events
European Commission and ManagEenrgy activities
The Covenant of Mayors
As highlighted in the previous newsletter, the
Covenant of Mayors is a new, ambitious initiative of the European Commission that will bring together the mayors of Europe's most pioneering cities in a permanent network to exchange and apply good practices across these cities and beyond to improve energy efficiency significantly in the urban environment. The Covenant of Mayors is the response of the most active cities to global warming: a formal commitment by the cities to reduce their CO
2 emissions even beyond the EU 20% objectives. Almost 100 cities throughout Europe, including 15 capitals, have expressed their willingness to join.
To assist local and regional energy actors, including energy agencies, to support the implementation of the Covenant of Mayors, a new page has been created on the ManagEnergy website at:
www.managenergy.net/com.html
In addition, a Forum on the Covenant of Mayors enabling local and regional energy actors to comment on the Covenant was added to this website on 15 February 2008.
Cities wishing to join the Covenant should send an email to:
TREN-COVENANT@ec.europa.eu
The
Covenant of Mayors page provides links to:
The role of Local & Regional Energy Agencies in the Covenant of Mayors
The Covenant of Mayors consists of the formal commitment of the cities/regions to go beyond the
EU objectives in terms of CO
2 reduction. In order to make it credible, the cities commit to
submit a Sustainable Energy Action Plan and periodic reports, to be evaluated externally to the city.
The Covenant entails also the right of each citizen to live in a community with a clear plan to fight
climate change. Therefore small cities cannot be excluded.
While large cities have the human resources and technical skills to prepare a plan and the reports, this
is not the case for most small cities. They will in all likelihood need the assistance of technical experts,
namely but not solely the energy agencies, and other levels of local and regional administration.
This raises a number of questions for local and regional energy actors, which will be discussed in the weeks following the official launch of the Covenant of
Mayors on 31 January 2008. These include:
- How do you see the role of the energy agencies in this scheme?
- How could we implement a practical scheme for provising this service?
- How could the national/regional authorities get involved in providing the necessary financial support?
- Could a thematic network of agencies, in co-operation with a Secretariat for the
Covenant of Mayors and the national/regional autorities provide this service?
- Would the national associations of agencies provide added value to the process?
Your informal comments on these and related questions are most welcome and can be sent via the
Covenant of Mayors Forum on the ManagEnergy website.
ManagEnergy Local Action Award 2008
Video recordings from the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW)
The Covenant of Mayors: The Contribution of Local Actors Towards a Sustainable Europe
On 29 January 2008, Commissioner Piebalgs launched, on behalf of the European Commission, the Covenant of Mayors, the most ambitious initiative to date involving the citizens in the fight against global warming. It came after an informal consultation process with many cities in Europe. Mayors of several of those European cities joined the Commission in launching 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 CO
2 emissions through energy efficiency and renewable energy actions.
"Cities are becoming the places to deliver new ideas and innovative projects against global warming. Cities are also the public spaces where it is possible to find multicultural, cross-sectorial solutions, where the necessary conciliation between private and public interests may be found. The approach to tackle the climate crisis challenge can only be holistic, integrated, long-term and, most of all, based on citizen participation. This complex picture is best managed at local level. Therefore, cities must become leading actors for implementing sustainable energy policies, and must be supported in their effort", said European Commissioner for Energy Andris Piebalgs.
View all the speeches and presentations from this event
Speech of Andris Piebalgs, European Commissioner for Energy on the Launch of the Covenant of Mayors (13 Kb PDF)
Energy education, bringing the energy awareness to schools
It is recognised that teachers often lack the training in adequately responding to questions related to energy efficiency, renewable energy sources and the rational use of energy. School curricula often do not offer the flexibility to integrate such subjects in teaching. Although many local authorities and private entities employ well trained energy advisors, they often lack the access to the education sector to offer their knowledge and experiences.
The energy education conference during the EUSEW 2008 with the slogan
"bringing energy awareness to school" primarily addressed those barriers. The participants discussed the opportunities for introducing energy education into national curricula and the role of a pan-European exchange between authorities, schools and energy experts for enhancing teaching capacities. The aim was to develop strategies that will help actors in the field of energy education to get the subject to the children.
View all the speeches from this event Intelligent Energy - Europe Info Day 2008
The 2008 call for project proposals will be published in late February 2008. Some €50 million will become available to co-finance European projects for the promotion of energy efficiency and renewables, and the setting up of local or regional energy agencies. Up to 75% of the eligible project costs will be supported.
View all the speeches from this event |
Programme & Presentations Video Recordings from other EUSEW Events
In total, 8 EU Sustainable Energy Week events were recorded:
- EU Sustainable Energy Policy - Partners for Sustainable Energy and
Presentation of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan organised by the
Slovenian Presidency and the European Commission on Monday 28 January 2008 - View the Recordings
- Renewable Energies for Rural Electrification: a win-win combination organised by the Alliance for Rural Electrification (ARE) on Monday 28 January 2008 - View the Recordings
- The Covenant of Mayors: The Contribution of Local Actors Towards a Sustainable Europe organised by
ManagEnergy, European Commission Directorate-General for Energy & Transport on Tuesday 29 January 2008 - see above
- Sustainable energy activities in European islands communities organised by ISLENET on 29 January 2008 - View the Recordings
- Energy education, bringing the energy awareness to schools organised by
ManagEnergy, European Commission Directorate-General for Energy & Transport on Wednesday 30 January 2008 - see above
- Renewable Energy Policy Workshop organised by the European Renewable Energy Council & European Commission Directorate-General for Energy & Transport on Wednesday 30 January 2008 - View the Recordings
- Intelligent Energy - Europe: European Info Day 2008 organised by the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) on Thursday 31 January 2008 - see above
- Energy Performance of Buildings Directive: Next Steps organised by the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy & Transport and the EPBD Buildings Platform - View the Recordings
How to email VideoCards or add them to your website
ManagEnergy VideoCards can be added to your website, or sent by email. To do this:
- View a video by clicking on the name of the presentation on an existing VideoCard or selecting a presentation from an event on the Internet Broadcast website.
- then either
1a) Click on the "Add to website" tab at the bottom right-hand side of the screen
1b) Highlight the source code and press Ctrl-C to copy it or right-click on your mouse and select "Copy" from the drop-down menu
1c) Paste the copied script into your webpage.
- or
2a) Click on the "Send to Friend" tab at the bottom right-hand side of the screen
2b) Enter your name, the receivers name and email address and a short message in the online form
2c) Press the send button
- Contact data@managenergy.net or helpdesk@managenergy.tvf for further assistance.
Reports from other events
European Biofuels Technology Platform Stakeholder Meeting - 31 January 2008
How to achieve the Energy Saving Potentials of cogeneration in Europe? - 30 January 2008
The European Commission, the International Energy Agency and COGEN Europe jointly hosted this ground breaking seminar. It was a high level event where the opportunities of cogeneration to contribute to Europe's energy efficiency goals were debated and explored. The seminar brought together Andris Piebalgs - Energy Commissioner, Nobuo Tanaka - Executive Director of the IEA and Claude Turmes - Member of the European Parliament, along with the practical experience of professionals from the city of London, energy intensive industries and EU Member States. An open session for debate followed the formal presentations, and summarised recommendations for EU energy policy.
View the presentations FP7 Information Days for Transport, Sustainable Surface Transport - 7 February 2008
The 2008 Calls for Proposals for Transport under the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP7) were published on 30 November 2007. In order to support the preparation of proposals, the Directorates General for Research (DG RTD) and for Energy and Transport (DG TREN) of the European Commission held Joint Information Days on 6 and 7 February 2008 in Brussels.
The aim of this event was to disseminate information about FP7 and the research areas open in the 2008 Calls for Proposals on the themes of Aeronautics (6 February) and Surface Transport (7 February) within the Cooperation Programme, to give details about the main legal and procedural conditions, and to answer any questions.
The second day (7 February 2008) was dedicated to the 2nd FP7 Calls in Transport (FP7-SST-2008-RTD-1, FP7-TPT-2008-RTD-1, FP7-SST-2008-TREN-1 ). Both days also tackled the "Cross-cutting activities" call (FP7-TPT-2008-RTD-1)
View the video recordings |
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