Municipal Development Coordination Platform – or Covenant of Mayors Club – is a new cooperation and networking format proposed by the CoM East project for CoM Signatories in all Eastern Partnership countries. The mission is to strengthen the dialogue between local and regional authorities, national and international beneficiaries to create a favorable environment in the communities for sustainable energy development and successful implementation of climate change mitigation measures.
Capacity building is a range of activities aimed at strengthening the expertise of the Covenant Signatories, Supporters and Coordinators in the field of energy and climate policies via delivery of various thematic seminars, webinars, trainings and workshops, study tours, staff exchanges, individual consultations, etc.
ARMENIA
BELARUS
GEORGIA
MOLDOVA
UKRAINE
In October 2018, a new exchange program City2City was launched by the CoM East project team. Specific objectives of the program are to establish the platform for sharing experience between municipalities and to familiarize CoM Signatories with the best practices in energy efficiency, sustainable energy development and adaptation to climate change policy through a series of study visits of two different levels – political (mayors/deputy mayors) and technical (energy managers). The program is expected to boost knowledge of its participants in thematic clusters covering the key sectors of SE(C)APs.
Implementation of the “political” component of City2City program started with a study tour of 18 representatives of CoM Signatories from the EaP countries to Riga and Jelgava (Latvia) on March, 18-22, 2019. These cities were selected as the most progressive municipalities among new EU members. It is indeed considered that Eastern European countries had the same starting point and the gap in energy development is not crucial, thus the experience and solutions of Riga and Jelgava can be replicated in EaP region. To ensure the most efficient information exchange environment between the study visit participants, its agenda included face-to-face meetings and direct communication with representatives of local authorities of the host cities, as well as site visits and meetings with the management and staff of facilities where respective sustainable energy and climate projects have been successfully implemented.
Within the “technical” component, two study visits were organised in Ukraine – to Zhovkva on October17-19, 2018 (small cities) and to Slavutych on October 24-26, 2018 (medium-size municipalities) – for 10 representatives of CoM Signatories who met eligibility criteria and demonstrated high interest in capacity building activities. Participants got acquainted with the process of development and implementation of sustainable energy development policy, learned the basics of energy management and energy monitoring systems, studied the practices of investment projects implementation. This format was focused on the direct engagement of participants into the learning process in order to increase the capacity of cities to fulfill their Covenant commitments.
In Belarus, representatives of technical staff from the local authorities of Belarusian Signatories of Dokshytsa, Karma, Mstislau, Pinsk and Smarhon', as well as two Georgian Signatories – Ozurgeti and Gurjaani, took part in the study visit to Brest on of May 15-17, 2019, where they studied the experience of the city on its way to decarbonization. The other five Belarusian municipalities – Baranavičy, Viliejka, Slaŭharad, Zelva and Pinsk district, as well as three Georgian cities – Sighnaghi, Chokhatauri and Lagodekhi, used an opportunity to get acquainted with the experience of adapting to climate changes during the study visit to Novogrudok on May 22-24, 2019.
Two more 3-day technical visits of the same kind took place for another two groups of 4 participants each to Slavutych on 19-21 June, 2019 and to Zhytomyr on June 25-27, 2019 respectively. Even being a bit different due to the unique situation in every of these two cities, the visits had very similar tasks within the City2City concept: to raise awareness of representatives from “guest” municipalities in the field of energy and climate policy on local level, to demonstrate practical aspects of planning, implementation and monitoring of energy and climate policy and to learn from the experience of “hosting” city in such areas as energy management system, EE financing in municipal projects within SEAP, project management within grant programmes and awareness raising for local community. These visits combined meetings with the city authorities, energy managers and site visits to the objects where the energy efficiency measures were successfully implemented in accordance to the EU standards.
Find out the main figures of the Covenant of Mayors in six Eastern Partnership countries.
* as of August 1, 2019
Municipalities of the Republic of Moldova become more and more in line with the European and global trends on sustainable energy and climate change adaptation. At this moment, 48 Moldovan cities and towns joined the Covenant of Mayors – the European flagship Initiative, which brings together municipalities that set ambitious local goals on energy and climate. This means that every second Moldovan citizen lives on the territory of CoM Signatories. How does it work in the country?
Moldovan Signatories receive continuous support from the CoM East Project Team and its partners, in particular in the field of improving their capacities in developing and implementing projects to meet their Sustainable Energy (and Climate) Action Plans’ (SE(C)APs) targets. The project organises capacity building events for active Signatories stimulating exchange of information and transfer of the best international practices on energy efficiency and climate change, in particular through a series of thematic trainings and City2City programme. A special attention is paid to financing mechanisms available for the Signatories in order to implement their SE(C)APs as well as promotion of the new Covenant and its benefits amongst local population and media.
To help Signatories bridge the financial gap and implement their SE(C)APs, the EU funded Programme “Covenant of Mayors – Demonstration Projects” (CoM-DeP) was launched, under which in 2018 three Moldovan Signatories received the EU support in the amount of EUR 1.7 million (or 34% of the amount allocated for 5 countries) for implementation of their SE(C)APs. The total number of beneficiaries within three demonstration projects amounts to 20 000 inhabitants. It is expected that as a result of these projects more than 21 km of street lighting system will be modernized in Calarasi, four educational buildings will be renovated up to the best energy efficiency standards, whereas Festelita will pilot the production of its own energy from sustainable sources, both biomass and above all solar.
At the national level, the CoM East office in Moldova has established a fruitful collaboration with national ministries, agencies and other key stakeholders in charge of climate and energy policies such as Ministry of Economy and Infrastructure, which is the Covenant National Coordinator in Moldova, Ministry of Agriculture, Regional Development and Environment, Energy Efficiency Agency, and Covenant Supporters – national associations of local authorities (CALM) and Alliance for Energy Efficiency and Renewables (AEER). A good synergy has been created with the existing projects and initiatives in Moldova, such as "Support to modernisation of the Moldovan Energy sector" project (STARS), financed by EU, Romanian Agency for International Development (RoAID), other financial institutions aimed at mobilizing funding for implementing projects on the CoM Signatories’ territory.
Commitments related to CO2 emission reduction (tons/year):
356 702 tons/year = annual emission of 228 687 new cars, planting of 16 mln trees, replacement of 12 mln old bulbs with LED
Energy savings to be achieved (MWt*h/a):
801 959 MWt*h/a = annual energy consumption of about 61 000 households
Around 17,000 inhabitants of Calarasi will benefit from modernized street lighting. The length of the street lighting network will be 21 kilometers providing a 35% reduction in annual energy consumption.
Two schools and two kindergartens in the city of Cantemir will benefit from a comprehensive thermal modernisation. Thanks to these energy efficiency measures, it will be possible to improve comfort conditions for over 900 children aged 2-17 years.
The project provides for the establishment of a center of excellence in the Festelita community, Stefan Voda district, for the management of new energy efficient technologies and renewable energy sources; installation of street LED lighting; installation of solar panels in the kindergarten and a biomass system at four public institutions (school, kindergarten, cultural center and the town hall); planting 20 ha of energy willow; building a photo-voltaic power plant of 300 KW.
(Learn more about the CoM-DeP Programme)
