The Covenant of Mayors reporting templates (6)
The Covenant of Mayors reporting templates provide signatories with a structured manner of summarizing the key elements of their action plan and tracking of implementation during the monitoring phase. It has been developed by the Covenant of Mayors Office and the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre with the collaboration of a group of practitioners from local and regional authorities.
When signatories submit their action plan document (in their national language), they are at the same time required to complete an online template available via the Covenant website restricted area: ‘My Covenant’ in English. Only after this process is completed, the official submission of the action plan to the Covenant of Mayors takes place.
The SEAP template, currently used by signatories of the Covenant of Mayors 2020 framework, include three main parts:
Overall strategy: specifying the overall CO2 emissions reduction target, the vision the attribution of staff and financial capacities, the involvement of stakeholders and citizens among others.
- Emission Inventories: indicating the current level of final energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions by energy carrier and by sector.
- Action Plan: defining the list of key actions set up to put the overall strategy into action, together with timeframes, assigned responsibilities, allocated budgets and estimates of the impacts.
Please consult the ‘Reporting Guidelines on Sustainable Energy Action Plan and Monitoring’ for step-by-step guidance available in the website library.
The SECAP template used by signatories of the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy, which includes the 2030 framework for mitigation as well as climate adaptation, include the following parts:
Introduction:
- Strategy: specifying the overall strategy to reach the Covenant commitments both for mitigation and adaptation. It includes the vision, the CO2 emissions reduction target(s), adaptation goals, the attribution of staff and financial capacities, the involvement of stakeholders and citizens among others.
Section I: Energy and climate mitigation:
- Emission Inventories: indicating the current level of final energy consumption and associated CO2 emissions by energy carrier and by sector.
- Mitigation Actions: defining the list of key mitigation actions set up to put the overall strategy into action, together with timeframes, assigned responsibilities, allocated budgets and estimates of the impacts.
Section II: Climate adaptation:
- Adaptation Scoreboard: providing a snapshot of the local authorities’ status in the adaptation process;
- Risks and Vulnerabilities: determining the potential sectors and the level of risk climate change poses to them;
- Adaptation Actions: defining the list of key actions set up to put the overall strategy into action, together with timeframes, assigned responsibilities, allocated budgets and what risks and vulnerabilities the action accommodates;
- Indicators: Serving as a check-list and inspiration for a comprehensive local plan for adapting to climate change.
Please consult the ‘The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy Reporting Guidelines" for step-by-step guidance available in the website library.
Highlights of the collected information in the template are provided in a graphical format which is then shown in each signatory profile on the Covenant of Mayors website.
The official submission of your action to the Covenant of Mayors has to be done using the online template available in the Covenant website restricted area: 'My Covenant'.
An Excel version of the SECAP template is available in the website library for download. This Excel-based template is an offline working version of the official online template which has to be completed in English and submitted online. Please note that it is not possible to export the data entered in the Excel to the online platform and vice-versa.
When filling in the SEAP/SECAP template, should the Covenant signatories only report on data of their Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) or can they share further inventories already compiled since the baseline year?
Written by Raphael ChateletWhen submitting their action plan, Covenant signatories are required to fill in their Baseline Emission Inventory as part of their template. In addition, they are strongly encouraged to include information on their subsequent inventories, the so-called Monitoring Emission Inventories (MEIs), when existing (especially the most recent one). For example, several Covenant Signatories have carried out a Baseline Emission Inventory for the year 1990 and then have included more recent inventories (MEIs) in their action plan template.
When filling in the SEAP/SECAP template, should the Covenant signatories also report on some of the actions already carried out causing considerable CO2 emission reductions?
Written by Raphael ChateletIf you have already implemented emission reduction actions, the results are visible when comparing the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) with subsequent inventories. You can describe these actions in both the action plan and the monitoring reports. It is not necessary to report on past (completed) actions in the action plan template, as at this stage you are defining the actions you plan to implement in order to reach the target set If you opt by including past actions in your action plan, you could select some of them as “Benchmarks of Excellence” within your template and have these actions highlighted in the “Benchmarks of Excellence” catalogue in the Covenant website.
How to estimate the expected final CO2 reductions per sector in the SEAP/SECAP template?
Written by Raphael ChateletEstimates of CO2 emissions reduction (by 2020 for SEAPs and by 2030 for SECAPs) are required in the last columns of the 'Key elements of your Action Plan' table in the template. Covenant Signatories can decide to establish these estimates either 'compared to their baseline year levels' (see option 1) or 'based on the results of their latest inventory year' (see option 2).
Example
Baseline year: 1990
Total CO2 emissions in the baseline year: 1 million tons
Overall CO2 reduction target: 25% by 2020, i.e. 250 000 tons
Total CO2 emissions in 2009: 900 000 tons, a per a recent CO2 emissions inventory
Option 1: Take the results of your Baseline Emission Inventory as a reference, and evaluate the expected contribution of each sector to the overall CO2 reduction target
Under this option, the sum of the CO2 reductions expected in the various sectors should correspond to the overall CO2 reduction target. In the example above, this should thus correspond to 250 000 tons.
Option 2: Take the results of your latest emission inventory as a reference, and evaluate the expected contribution of each sector to the remaining effort needed to reach the overall 2020 objective
Under this option, the sum of the CO2 reductions expected in the various sectors should correspond to the remaining effort. In the example above, this corresponds to 150 000 tons: since you have already achieved 100 000 tons of CO2 emission reduction since 1990, you 'only' aim at reducing further 150 000 tons of CO2 overall. This option is only valid if you have carried out a recent monitoring emissions inventory and you have reported on it in the SEAP/SECAP template.
Notes:
- These estimates are compulsory at the sectoral level for the sectors where you have defined actions in your action plan.
- If you have opted for a recent baseline year, those two options should lead to identical figures. These options were designed to facilitate the work of cities having opted for a baseline year that is far in the past (e.g. 1990).
- Graphical highlights based on these figures will be published on the Covenant of Mayors website, under the signatory profiles.
What if your CO2 reduction target has a different horizon than 2020 or 2030?
Written by Raphael ChateletThe years 2020 and 2030 are the time horizons of your commitment in the Covenant of Mayors. For this reason, and for the sake of comparability, all the Covenant Signatories should identify a target for 2020 and/or 2030. For instance, if your local authority has set a long-term target beyond 2030, an intermediate target for 2020 or 2030, depending on your Covenant commitment, should be set in addition. In the SEAP/SECAP template, you have the possibility to specify 2020, 2030 and a longer-term target (optional) of your choice in the Strategy part.