The Covenant of Mayors has been active in Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries since 2011, encouraging towns and cities to sign the Covenant and supporting them with planning and implementing energy and climate actions. To date hundreds of Mayors have signed up and developed their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs).
Even small investments in energy projects can bring big rewards at the municipal level in terms of reduced energy consumption (and CO2 emissions), better local public services and also greater comfort for residents.
In order to support pilot projects, in 2014 the European Commission (EC) launched the programme ‘Sustainable Urban Demonstration Projects’, now known simply as ‘Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects’.
The programme comprises:
- A grant component, with 17 projects (involving 19 local administrations) in phase I (2014-2019) and 14 projects (involving 15 local administrations) in phase II (2018-2022) whose municipal energy and climate projects were awarded funding through a Call for Proposals.
- Technical, procedural, communication and networking support from a dedicated support team
