Armenia: The first meeting of the Covenant of Mayors Club, 14/03/2019, Yerevan

On March 14, 2019, the first meeting of the members of the Covenant of Mayors Club in Armenia, organized within the framework of the EC “Covenant of Mayors – East” project, took place in Yerevan.

The event was attended by 24 signatories of the Covenant, two Covenant National Coordinators (Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of RA and Ministry of Territorial Administration and Development of RA), three Covenant Supporters (Union of Communities of Armenia, Energy Saving Foundation and R2E2 Fund), as well as by representatives of the EU Delegation to Armenia, UNDP Armenia and Habitat for Humanity Armenia Foundation.

The mission of the Club is to strengthen a policy dialogue between local authorities and relevant national and international stakeholders with the aim to facilitate establishment of enabling environment for development and implementation of local (community) energy and climate actions plans via transfer of technologies and elimination of barriers for municipal investments.

In addition, the Club is to facilitate exchange of information among signatories and stakeholders to ensure coordination and synergy between relevant activities and municipal projects.

The ultimate goal of the Club is to create an effective platform for communication and interaction among all stakeholders within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors, designed to facilitate establishment of favorable conditions for increasing energy independence of cities, lowering energy costs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and ensuring climate resilience, thus, ultimately, improving the quality of life in cities.

Participants of the event were welcomed by Mr. Stanislav Toskov, International Aid/Cooperation Officer of the EU Delegation to Armenia, Mr. Emin Yeritsyan, President of the Union of Armenian Communities and Mr. Vahagn Atayan, Head of Technical Normative Department of the Ministry of Energy Infrastructures and Natural Resources of RA.

Presentations were made by Mr. Vahagn Atayan (Overview of energy development strategy and priorities of the Republic of Armenia), Mrs. Diana Harutyunyan, UNDP Climate Change Project Coordinator (Climate change mitigation and adaptation commitments of Armenia), Mrs. Astghine Pasoyan, Director of Energy Saving Foundation (Overview of preliminary results of barrier analysis for sustainable municipal energy).

Information on the status of the implementation of the CoM Eastt project, planned activities, development prospects of the Global Covenant of Mayors, as well as the results of a survey on the main functions and procedures of the Club were presented by Mr. Artem Kharazyan, CoM East National Expert in Armenia.

Election of the Chairman and the Deputy Chairman of the Club was followed by presentations on municipal projects implemented in 5 signatory cities with the framework of EC “Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects” programme and introduction of energy saving and renewable energy activities implemented by R2E2 Fund and funded through factoring.

In the conclusion of the meeting, the participants discussed the main organizational, legislative and financial barriers identified in the process of implementing municipal projects in Armenia over the past few years, as well as possible mechanisms to overcome them.