Adhesion procedure - How to sign up to the Covenant of Mayors (6)
European local authorities of all sizes - from small towns to big cities or major metropolitan areas - are eligible to sign up as Covenant signatory. The local authority must be democratically constituted with/by elected representatives.
As the initiative requires the design and implementation of a comprehensive Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), the signatory’s governing bodies should have adequate competences in various fields, such as transport, buildings, land use planning, climate change adaptation etc. If an interested local authority lacks competences or resources to prepare its action plan, it should be supported by administrations with such capacities, i.e. Covenant Territorial Coordinators or Supporters.
Smaller local authorities can also join the Covenant of Mayors as a group of signatories and share the Covenant obligations. See here how to join as a group of municipalities.
Local authorities willing to sign up to the Covenant of Mayors must present and discuss the commitments in their municipal council (or equivalent decision-making body). Once a decision to sign up is formally made, local authorities should complete their information online here and upload their duly signed adhesion form, which can be downloaded in your national language here. The date of the council decision is the date that must be indicated as the council deliberation date in the Information and contact form. Local authorities, with a duly signed adhesion form and acceptance, will subsequently be included into the public list of Covenant signatories.
Note: The Covenant of Mayors is a voluntary commitment. Hence the adhesion is fully free of charge.
Small neighboring municipalities can benefit from preparing a joint Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan. To join as a group, each municipality will have to sign up with the designated adhesion forms for joint SECAPs. The municipalities have two different options of collaboration:
Option 1 - individual commitments: each signatory in the group individually commits to reducing CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020 and/or 30% by 2030 and is thus required to complete its own template. The action plan can contain both individual and shared measures.
Option 2 - shared commitments: the group of signatories collectively commits to reducing CO2 emissions by at least 20% by 2020 and/or 30% by 2030. In this particular case only one single common template is to be filled-in by the group of signatories, which is then listed under a grouped signatory profile on the public website.
Local authorities can sign the Covenant of Mayors at any time, there is no deadline! Covenant of Mayors Ceremonies provide all Mayors with a valuable opportunity for visibility, networking and a public signature.
Note: the reference adhesion date is the date of decision by the municipal council (or equivalent decision-making body).
The municipal council shall pass a formal decision to join the Covenant of Mayors and shall authorize the city mayor or his/her representative to sign the Adhesion Form.
How shall the Signatory’s status be checked?
Written by Raphael ChateletYou can get acquainted with the list of cities/towns – Covenant Signatories here.