FAQ

Vision, ambition and scope of action The Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy was launched on 15 October 2015 at the Joint Covenant of Mayors and Mayors Adapt Ceremony, where a long-term vision and new commitments towards 2030 were endorsed.

This initiative defines renewed commitment(s) and a shared long-term vision in order to tackle interconnected challenges: climate change mitigation, adaptation and access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy for all.

The vision is threefold and includes:

• Accelerating the decarbonization of our territories, thus contributing to keeping average global warming below 2°C.
• Strengthening our capacities to adapt to unavoidable climate change impacts, thus making our territories more resilient.
• Increasing energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy sources on our territories, thus ensuring universal access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy services for all.

The initiative also proposes a new “global chapter” by inviting signatories to share their vision, results, experience and know-how with fellow local and regional authorities within the EU and beyond via decentralized cooperation and city-to-city twinning.

Commitments

By 2030, signatories commit to reducing carbon emissions across their territory by at least 30%, to increasing their resilience to the impacts of climate change and strengthening their efforts to provide access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy for all.

To translate commitments into action, a signatory commits to submitting a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) within two years following the local council decision and formal signing, including the mainstreaming of adaptation considerations into relevant policies, strategies and plans.

As an existing signatory, you can renew your Covenant commitments at any time by adopting them in your municipal council and submitting the duly signed adhesion form available here.

If you have signed up to the Covenant of Mayors but have not yet started the preparation of your Sustainable Energy Action Plan:

You may instead consider channeling your efforts to prepare a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), which focus on a 2030 horizon inclusive of both mitigation and resilience to the impacts of climate change. At the time of submitting your SECAP you will be requested to provide your new adhesion form.

If you have signed up to the Covenant of Mayors and have submitted a Sustainable Energy Action Plan:

You should keep your focus on implementing the 2020 commitments adopted by your municipal council and in assessing the progress towards them. If you wish to submit a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) before 2020, you should first report on your 2020 SEAP by submitting a monitoring template.

It will be up to each existing signatory to decide according to their planning cycles when they would like to sign up to the new commitments and thus prepare and submit a SECAP.

Please note that local authorities, who have previously signed the commitments for 2020 and now want to renew their commitments, should send their adhesion form for the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy directly to info-east@eumayors.eu, as online registration in this case is not possible.

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.

You can get acquainted with the list of cities/towns – Covenant Signatories here.

As described in the commitment documents all Signatories accept suspension of their membership in the initiative in case, they do not submit the above-mentioned documents (SEAP/SECAP and monitoring reports) within the established deadlines. This is a part of the Covenant Commitments, which all Signatories have committed to when signing the Covenant of Mayors. When a signatory is put on hold, their profile on the public website will turn grey and will not appear when searching for signatories.

A signatory that has exceeded a reporting deadline and has been put on hold will still have access to their signatory profile under ‘My Covenant’ and can always come back on track. As soon as the signatory has submitted the missing report it will automatically re-appear as an active signatory on the public website and in the search engine for active Signatories. The delay is not recorded anywhere on the public website and will have no consequences for the future Covenant of Mayors activities.

Funded by the European Commission, the Covenant of Mayors Office (CoMO) is responsible for the overall coordination of the initiative. The CoMO is managed by a consortium of experienced European networks representing local and regional authorities composed by Energy Cities, CEMR, Climate Alliance, EUROCITIES, FEDARENE and ICLEI Europe.

The coordination of the initiative is done in collaboration with the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, which is responsible for evaluating the Action Plans submitted by signatories via the online reporting system that signatories can find when they log in to ‘My Covenant’.

The Covenant of Mayors Office operates as the primary interface for all local authorities towards the Covenant of Mayors. It aims to:

• assist all local authorities interested in joining the initiative through the adhesion process;
• help signatories with general or technical inquiries related to the Covenant of Mayors and its commitments;
• support the implementation of your communication and promotional activities;
• coordinate liaisons with third parties and relevant stakeholders (i.e. Covenant Coordinators, Covenant Supporters);
• facilitate networking activities within the Covenant of Mayors community.

The Joint Research Centre of the European Commission is responsible for the evaluation of Action Plans, providing feedback to signatories as well as answering technical inquiries.

The Office of the Covenant of Mayors East (oСоМ – East), funded by the European Commission’s General Directorate for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Negotiations, is responsible for coordination and management of the initiative in Eastern Europe and South Caucasus. The Office provides administrative and technical support to the Signatories, promotes interaction between the Covenant’s partners and ensures promotion of their activities.

Along with oСоМ in Brussels, oСоМ East, located in Yerevan (Armenia), Minsk (Belarus), Tbilisi (Georgia), Chisinau (Moldova), and Kyiv (Ukraine), provides support to Signatories in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova, and Ukraine.

The Office is managed by the Consortium headed by Energy Cities and consisting of the ‘Climate Alliance’ Association, consulting company ‘Kommunalkredit Public Consulting’, ‘Interakcia’ Foundation, Association ‘Energy-Efficient Cities of Ukraine’, Republian Community Association of Armenia

The Office of the Covenant of Mayors East acts as the primary mediator between local self-government bodies and the Covenant of Mayors. Its objectives are as follows:

• To promote local authorities interested in joining the Covenant initiative.
• To provide general technical and consultancy support to Signatories in the isuses related to the Covenant of Mayors and its requirements.
• To coordinate interaction with the third parties and the key partners (like Territorial Coordinators and Covenant Supporters, local and regional energy agencies).

The European Commission’s Joint Research Centre and ‘Climate Alliance’ Association provide support in more specific issues related to inventory of СО2 emission, development of SEAP/SECAPs and their assessment.

oСоМ – East provides supports to the Covenant Signatories in a number of issues via its Helpdesk.

In particular, оСоМ – East takes the following actions:

Provides individual technical, expert and administrative support to cities/towns-signatories.

Develops, improves and provides technical guidelines, templates and methodological materials to Signatories for:

– Data collection.

– Baseline Emission Inventory development.

– Development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan of the city/town.

– The process of monitoring and reporting on the implementation of activities within SEAP.

A key to the success of the whole process, starting with SEAP/SECAP preparation and up to its implementation outcomes, is establishment of close cooperation between different local administrative structures (for example, units and administrations of the mayor’s office), as well as taking of SEAP/SECAP into consideration in the discussion and approval of respective administrative decisions.

Municipalities should not consider SEAP/SECAP as an autonomous document. Just the opposite, it should be interrelated with the Signatory’s energy policy and be integrated into the daily functions of different departments of the local administration.

SEAP/SECAP should indicate what task forces or administrative structures are already in place or will be established for the sake of preparing the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI), Risk and Vulnerabilities Assessment (RVA), planning and implementation of measures under SEAP/SECAP and outcome monitoring. Special attention should be paid to the management structure administered by the manager having some experience in the field of energy, as well as to allocation of respective human resoures necessary to take the SEAP/SECAP measures. Availability of energy manager in the structure (on the staff) of the municipality may play a crucial role in the process of efficient city’s/town’s SEAP/SECAP implementation.

(see also Section 2 ‘The Manual on SEAP Development in the Cities/Towns of Eastern Partnership and Central Asia’, prepared by the Joint Research Centre in 2012).

SEAP/SECAP should be developed on the basis of reliable information related to energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the territory of local self-government bodies. Due to this, at the initial stage a comprehensive assessment of the current (baseline) situation and structures should be made. The assessment starts with determination of the level of energy consumption in respective sectors of the city’s/town’s economy and development of the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI), determination of the volume of carbon dioxide (CO2) emission related to energy consumption in the baseline year.

The BEI and further inventory-making of CO2 emission (if available) constitute the main tool allowing local authorities to determine priority measures and efficiency of the measures implemented by them, aimed at reduction of greenhouse gas emission.

Development of the BEI constitutes an obligatory stage of SEAP/SECAP preparation and the key aspect in the performance of commitments under the Covenant. The Inventory should be included into the full version of SEAP/SECAP officially approved by local authorities.

The main characteristics of the BEI are provided below:

• The BEI should reflect local situation, that is should be based on local data on energy consumption/production and other information necessary to prepare the inventory. Assessments and estimations based on national or regional means will not reflect the real situation locally (in the city/town), since in most cases they are characteristic of a specific territory position. The inventory estimated on the basis of such data will also not constitute an important reference point for the assessment of the efficiency of efforts taken by local authorities to achieve their goals in the field of СО2 emission reduction.
• Methodological approaches and sources of the data used in the estimations should not change for several years. That means that the methodology used for the BEI development should also be used for further inventory-making measures to be taken on a regular basis for the sake of monitoring the progress in emission reduction (Emission Inventory Monitoring).
• The BEI should include at least the sectors where the local authorities intend to take measures aimed at achievement of their emission reduction goals, that is the sectors that constitute important sources of СО2 emission (a detailed description of the sectors included in the BEI is provided in the second part of the SEAP Guidebook, see below).
• The BEI should contain reliable information or at least common-sense vision of reality (that is, if possible, most objectively reflect the current situation).
• The process of input data collection, the sources of data and calculation methodology for the BEI should be duly documented (that can also be done within SEAP/SECAP, or, at least, the necessary data should be preserved in the local authority’s documents).
• Signatories from Eastern Partnership countries are insistently recommended to include monitoring of energy costs into the BEI as well as into further inventory-making activities.

More detailed information on the BEI preparation can be founded in the SEAP Guidebook for the cities/towns of Eastern Partnership and Central Asia, Part I (Section 2) and Part II – Baseline Emission Inventory, developed by the Joint Research Centre in 2014.

All Covenant signatories can choose their own tools for the calculation of their emissions. However, they need to make sure that the reported inventory is in line with the general principles specified and detailed in the SEAP Guidebook (en, de, fr, it & es) available in our online library. Notice the SEAP guidebook refers to the mitigation part only and the guidelines remain the same when developing your Baseline Emission Inventory for a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP).

Baseline year is the initial year in reference to which CO2 emission should be achieved by the end of 2020. Thus, the volume of emission reduction in 2020 is assessed in comparison with emission figures in the baseline year.

Unlike the recommendations provided in the SEAP Guidebook for European countries (for which mainly 1990 is the baseline year), Signatories from Eastern Partnership countries are recommended to take the latest year as the baseline one (not before 2000), which is the most illustrative in terms of reflection of the current economic situation and for which reliable statistical data can be collected.

The main reason for this is that local authorities in Eastern Partnership countries are frequently faced with problems in their search of reliable statistical data for compiling the Baseline Emission Inventory for 1990.

Another reason for not taking the baseline year applied in the European countries as the benchmark is the fact that the cities/towns willing to include industrial sector into their SEAPs/SECAPs cannot do this, since the majority of post-Soviet countries lived through a considerable economic crisis in the 90ies, due to which the level of their industrialization at that time may not correspond to the current level.

Some local authorities paying attention, inter alia, to proximity of 2020 and, as the result, to insufficient time interval for comprehensive implementation of CO2 emission reduction measures may set the tasks of emission reduction for a longer period (for instance, by 2030). In this case they should set some interim goals for 2020 in order to ensure comparability with other signatories.

The Baseline Emission Inventory should essentially be based on the final energy consumption data, i.e. what is consumed by the final end-users (incl. electricity, heat/cold and fuel) within the boundaries of the local authority.

Local energy production can also be included in the inventory if the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan includes actions related to it (e.g. PVs, wind power, district heating or Combined Heat and Power). The SEAP Guidebook (en, de, fr, it & es) provides more information on this option. Notice that the SEAP guidebook is prepared for mitigation only but can be used as an up-to-date guidance for developing a Baseline Emission Inventory for the SECAPs as well.

Two different approaches may be chosen when establishing the Baseline Emission Inventory at local level, namely:

The territorial or IPCC approach, covering all the CO2 emissions occurring due to final energy consumption in the territory of the local authority.

The Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach, considering the overall life cycle of the fuels/electricity. This includes all emissions of the energy chain that also take place outside the territory (such as transport losses, refinery emissions or energy conversion losses).

The Covenant of Mayors commitments concern the entire geographical area of the local authority. Hence, the Baseline Emission Inventory should take into consideration the energy consumed in all sectors of activity.

The Covenant key sectors are the following:

• Municipal buildings, equipment/facilities.
• Tertiary (non-municipal) buildings, equipment/facilities.
• Residential buildings.
• Transport.

In order to monitor the energy consumption and CO2 emissions data effectively and adapt the Action Plan accordingly if necessary, Covenant signatories are encouraged to compile Monitoring Emission Inventories on a regular basis. Our recommendation is to do this on a yearly basis, and the minimal requirement in the context of the Covenant of Mayors is to do it at least every 4 years. In this way, subsequent inventories may be compared with the Baseline Emission Inventory, and progress with energy savings, renewable energy production and CO2 emission reduction measures adopted can be monitored.

The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment is an analysis that determines the nature and extent of risk, by analyzing potential hazards and assessing vulnerability that could pose a potential threat or harm to people, property, livelihoods and the environment on which they depend. It allows the identification of areas of critical concern and therefore provides information for decision-making. The assessment could address risks related to floods, extreme temperatures and heat waves, droughts and water scarcity, storms and other extreme weather events, increased forest fires, sea level rise and coastal erosion (if applicable). The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment serves, along with the Baseline Emission Inventory, as the point of departure for the development of the Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan.

The Urban Adaptation Support Tool provides a detailed step-by-step guide to developing a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment. The guide furthermore provides support in utilizing the RVA and translating the findings into adaptation measures. You can find the Urban Adaptation Support Tool here.

The Reference Data Tool (RDT) was developed by the Office of the Covenant of Mayors East in order to provide local self-government bodies with reference data related to final energy consumption and carbon dioxide emission (CO2), necessary in the process of the Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) and Emission Inventory Monitoring (EIM)* development.

The tool contains the data base broken by national statistical energy consumption figures for specific sectors and energy carriers for each of 11 Eastern Partnership and Middle Asian countries. The data is provided in the following sectors: residential buildings, services (offices, shops, hospitals, and equipment/edifices), industry, agriculture, and transport.

The list of energy resources includes electricity, heat/cold, natural gas, liquefied gas, heating fuel, diesel, petroleum, lignite/coal, other types of fossil fuels and agricultural oils / biofuel.

*) It should be noted that the tool has been developed for the sake reference data provision in cases there is no reliable local data for some years and/or sectors. That may be particularly topical for small communities where there is a local data collection system for small communities with no local data collection system.

The Reference Data Tool represents the following sectors: residential buildings, services (offices, shops, hospitals equipment/constructions), industry, agriculture and transport as well as other energy carriers: electricity, heat/cold, natural gas, liquefied gass, heating fuel, diesel, petroleum, lignite / coal, other types of fossil fuels and agricultural oils / biofuel.

Signatories of the former Covenant of Mayors addressing only energy and climate change mitigation have committed to prepare and implement a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) before 2020. Signatories of the new Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy now commit to prepare and implement Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), addressing both climate mitigation and adaptation before 2030.

The action plan (both SEAP and SECAP) is the key document which shows how the Covenant signatory will reach its vision and target. The plan includes an assessment of the current situation, i.e. a Baseline Emission Inventory for the climate mitigation part (both SEAP and SECAP) and a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment for the adaptation part (For SECAP only); clearly identified goals and targets; and the measures planned together with time frames, assigned responsibilities and estimated impacts.

Scope of action:

The Covenant of Mayors concerns the action at local level within the competence of the local authorities involved. Hence, it is expected that the Covenant signatories will act in several or all of their possible roles:

● Consumer and model: All local authorities are responsible for their own energy consumption. At the same time, they play an exemplary role by encouraging citizens and other stakeholders to use energy more efficiently.

● Planner, developer and regulator: All local authorities are usually responsible for building, transport and land use planning policies. They have the power to: optimize the energy performance of new facilities, integrate sustainable transport measures and adaptation strategies in local planning practice. They shape transport/energy performance by legal decisions and regulatory instruments.

● Producer and supplier: Local authorities may also act as a local utility or service provider promoting local energy production and using renewable energy sources (e.g. Combined Heat and Power/CHPs, district heating systems etc.).

● Advisor and motivator: Awareness-raising activities are important to engage the whole community to support sustainable energy and climate policies. Local authorities can act as advisor and educator for citizens and other stakeholders (e.g. architects, planners or craftsmen).

For guidance on the mitigation part, please consult the SEAP Guidebook (en, de, fr, it & es)

For guidance on the adaptation part, please consult the Urban Adaptation Support Tool.

Since the Covenant’s commitments concern the whole geographical area of the local authority, the action plan should include actions that cover the sectors of activity from both public and private actors.

Covenant signatories are free to choose their main areas of action. In principle, it is anticipated that most action plans will cover the sectors that are considered within the emission inventory and risk and vulnerability assessment (for SECAP only).

For the mitigation part (both SEAP and SECAP):

It is recommended to include actions targeting the Covenant key sectors:

• Municipal buildings, equipment/facilities;
• Tertiary (non-municipal) buildings, equipment/facilities;
• Residential buildings;
• Transport.

Actions can also be included for other sectors such as:

• Industry.
• Local electricity production.
• Local heat/cold production.
• Others (e.g. Agriculture, Forestry, Fisheries).

For the adaptation part (For SECAP only):

Identification of the sectors to increase the resilience in a city is highly contextual. A solid and comprehensive climate adaptation strategy therefore involves thinking adaptation into all aspects of municipal services affected by climate change. Some of the main sectors that can improve the resilience of cities include:

• Infrastructure.
• Public Services.
• Land Use Planning.
• Environment & Biodiversity.
• Agriculture & Forestry.
• Economy.

In order to make sure that your existing Action Plan fulfils the minimal requirements set in the context of the Covenant of Mayors, please review the document according to the 10 key principles for the energy and climate mitigation part (see in the SEAP Guidebook – en, de, fr, it & es, page 8).

The action plan must contain a clear reference to the core commitments, i.e.at least 20%. CO2 emissions reduction by 2020 and/or 30% CO2 emissions reduction by 2030 and increased resilience to the impacts of climate change (SECAP)taken by the local authority when signing the Covenant of Mayors.

The strategic commitments have to be translated into concrete actions in the short and medium term, as well as longer term strategies and goals. If your existing action plan has a shorter or a longer timeframe than the Covenant timeframes (i.e. 2020 or 2030), you have to adjust it to the Covenant target time horizons and include the Covenant target in your action plan approved by the City Council.

In addition, the key elements of your action plan have to be reported in the online template available in ‘My Covenant’. Please check the Reporting Guidelines available in the library.

Deadline for SEAP submission

Signatories to the Covenant of Mayors related to the 2020 framework, commit to submitting their Sustainable Energy Action Plans where the Covenant objectives and measures are justified within one year following the local council decision as indicated in the adhesion document.

Deadline for SECAP submission

Signatories to the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy related to the 2030 framework commit to submitting their Sustainable Energy and Climate Plan, including justified objectives and actions within two years following the date of the local council decision as indicated in the adhesion document.

For submitting your SEAP:

Covenant Signatories are invited to use the on-line submission system available via ‘My Covenant‘ (the website extranet section).

The procedure includes the following steps:

1. Log in to ‘My Covenant’ using your personal identifiers – You can retrieve your password at any time under the ‘sign-in’ section.
2. Fill in the ‘SEAP template’ in English – Click on ‘My action plan’ > ‘SEAP template’ in the blue menu at the top of the homepage and complete the following three sections: your ‘Overall Strategy’, your ‘Baseline Emission Inventory’ and your ‘SEAP’. All the green cells are mandatory! A specific instructions document for filling in the template is available on the Covenant website library.
3. Upload your SEAP document – After filling in the SEAP template, click on ‘Upload SEAP document’ and upload your complete Sustainable Energy Action Plan – duly approved by the municipal council – (and any other relevant documents) in a PDF format.
4. Validate your online SEAP submission – Click on ‘Go to submission’ and follow the instructions.

In 2017, a preliminary checking system of the template will be made available, allowing the detection of errors or inconsistencies. For this, you should click on the ‘See notification checklist’ button. This will be run through a parallel online application, developed and managed by the JRC.

Once submitted, your SEAP will be analyzed by the JRC and you shall receive a feedback report. More information on the SEAP assessment procedure can be found here.

For submitting your SECAP:

The SECAP submission procedure is currently under development, as a part of upgrading the existing SEAP template to also include reporting for 2030 commitments and adaptation. During 2016, the SECAP template will only be available in EXCEL format in the library. New signatories can use the EXCEL version as a working tool as well as to get acquainted with the reporting framework that will be introduced online within the last quarter of 2017.

In the meantime, new signatories will be able to upload any documents, e.g. adaptation strategy as part of the SEAP template submission procedure currently in place. New signatories can also use the current SEAP template to submit information for 2030-time horizon (instead of 2020) in what regards climate mitigation. However, they will have to complete the remaining parts for climate adaptation once the SECAP online template is available in 2017.

A group of neighboring local authorities joining the Covenant of Mayors and willing to elaborate a joint SEAP/SECAP is welcome to do so.

The group can choose between the following two collaboration options:

Option 1:

• Mitigation: Each signatory of the group individually commits to reducing CO2 emissions (SEAP). Because the emission reduction target remains an individual commitment, ALL signatories have to fill in their own SEAP/SECAP template, including their own CO2 / energy consumption data. CO2 emission reductions resulting from common actions identified in the joint SEAP/SECAP have to be shared among the signatories and accounted for in each SEAP/SECAP template, according to transparent rules described in the joint SEAP document. The joint SEAP/SECAP has to be approved by the municipal council (or equivalent decision-making body) of each municipality involved and uploaded by each of the local authorities onto their profile via ‘My Covenant’ (restricted area). The names of the local authorities that are covered by the SEAP/SECAP must be clearly indicated in the Action Plan. This type of joint SEAP/SECAP is described in the SEAP Guidebook (EN, RU).
• Adaptation (For SECAP only): Signatories can decide to prepare a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment and its corresponding actions jointly or individually When joining as a group of municipalities with option 1, each municipality will register individually by filling in Local authority’s information & contact details, indicate it is a group of municipalities committing as a joint SEAP/SECAP option 1 by ticking the box in the online registration form and include the associated municipalities where required in the form.

Option 2:

Mitigation: the group of signatories collectively commits to reducing CO2 emissions. In this case, the emission reduction target is a commitment shared between the different authorities composing the group. Therefore, ONE single SEAP/SECAP template needs to be filled in by the group of Signatories. The joint Action Plan has to be approved by the municipal council (or equivalent decision-making body) of each involved Signatory and uploaded by the group onto a shared profile via ‘My Covenant’ (restricted area). The names of the local authorities that are covered by the SEAP/SECAP, as well as their level of contribution to the overall plan must be clearly indicated in the SEAP/SECAP document. This option aims at fostering inter-institutional co-operation by facilitating joint approaches with neighboring authorities. It is particularly recommended to small- and medium-sized municipalities lacking human and/or financial resources as well as to municipalities within the same urban areas.

(For SECAP only): Signatories can decide to prepare a Risk and Vulnerability Assessment and its corresponding actions jointly or individually When joining as a group of municipalities with option 2, only one profile must be set up. This joint profile must include all individual adhesion forms when registering the Local authority’s information & contact details online. It shall furthermore be indicated that it is a group of municipalities committing as a joint SEAP/SECAP option 2 by ticking the box in the online form and include the associated municipalities where required in the form.

Important:

In both cases, the ‘group of Signatories’ is strongly encouraged to appoint a body/authority responsible for coordinating the work throughout the SEAP/SECAP development and implementation process. It could be for example one of the most active / advanced municipality among the group, the agglomeration in case of urban areas, or the province / region acting as official Covenant Coordinator (see the list of Covenant Coordinators). If you are interested in joining the Covenant of Mayors as a ‘group of Signatories’, please contact the Covenant of Mayors Office (info-east@eumayors.eu). The CoMO reserves the right to decline any application which would not comply with the eligibility criteria defined in the Addendum 1 to the SEAP Guidebook (e.g. for option 2: the group must be composed of small- and medium-sized municipalities within the same territorial area, indicatively with less than 10,000 inhabitants each).

Download the adhesion form:

Group of signatories – option 1

Group of signatories – option 2

The adhesion form must be signed by all local authorities involved in the group, after official approval by their respective municipal councils.

Signatories are committed to submitting a SEAP (1 year after the adhesion date*) / SECAP (2 years after the adhesion date*). If the SEAP/SECAP cannot be completed by that date, Covenant Signatories must request an extension. To do so, they are invited to fill in the online delay request form, available in ‘My Covenant‘ (Covenant website extranet).

If you are an individual Signatory (i.e. not belonging to any official Covenant Territorial Coordinator):

A 9-month extension may be granted to individual Signatories where circumstances, outside the local authority’ control, delay the completion and submission of the SEAP/SECAP by the official submission date.

9-month Deadline Extension Procedure:

• Go to ‘My Covenant’ and log in with your personal identifiers.
• Click ‘My Action Plan’ > ‘Submit a delay request’ and fill in the form (all fields marked with an asterisk * are compulsory). The request must include the main reasons of the delay.
• Press the ‘Submit delay request’ button. You (and other contact persons associated to the profile) will receive a confirmation by email within 1 day.

If you belong to an official Covenant Territorial Coordinator

When supported by an official Covenant Territorial Coordinator (CTC), you may request your CTC for 18 months extension.

18-month Deadline extension procedure for the CTC:

• Go to ‘My Covenant’ and log in with their personal identifiers.
• Click ‘My Signatories’ > ‘Submit a delay request’ and fill in the form (all fields marked with an asterisk * are compulsory). The request must include: the main reasons for requesting a common extension and a brief description of the instrument(s)/service(s) developed by CTC to support Signatories.
• Press the ‘Submit delay request’ button. The extension will then be automatically granted to the associated municipalities. You (and the municipalities within your territory) will receive a confirmation by email within 1 day.

If the Covenant Signatory has not applied for an extension:

One deadline extension can be granted, provided that the signatory duly completes the online delay request form – please refer to the FAQ: ‘How to request an extension of your SEAP submission deadline?’

If the Covenant Signatory has already been granted an extension:

The global success and the credibility of the initiative depend upon the fulfilment of the commitments taken by its signatories. The European Commission, recognizing the efforts undertaken by other local authorities having complied with these commitments and respecting the termination clause of the Covenant of Mayors official texts (*), suspends Signatories in case of non-submission within the revised timeframe. However, the signatory status in the Covenant of Mayors can be re-activated at any time, provided that the municipality fulfils its first commitment and duly submits an action plan on-line through our extranet system (“My Covenant”).

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(*) Short extract from the Covenant official text (page 7):

“

Suspension in case of non-compliance: Signatories accept to be suspended from the initiative – subject to prior notice in writing by the Covenant of Mayors Office – in the event of non-submission of the above-mentioned documents (i.e. Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan and Monitoring Reports) within the established deadlines. This procedure ensures transparency, robustness and fairness vis-à-vis other signatories who deliver on their commitments.

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Note: With the new fully automatic and transparent- suspension procedure, the information on whether or not signatories are respecting their commitments is publicly available under their individual profiles – see the list of Signatories. In case of suspended signatories, the public profiles are greyed out with the following notification: ‘Signatory on hold – deadline over’.

Once your action plan is submitted via the online reporting platform ‘My Covenant’, all the key results of your action plan are automatically displayed in a graphical manner in your signatory profile in the Covenant website. Furthermore, if you choose, all your uploaded documents become available for download in your public profile.

The action plan is afterwards submitted to an evaluation process carried out by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, which will check if the plan fulfils the eligibility criteria and send you a feedback report.

The evaluation process is mainly based on the description encoded in the SEAP/SECAP online template. Therefore, all Covenant signatories should ensure that information filled in the template is well-consistent with their full SEAP/SECAP document.

The eligibility criteria are the following:

• The action plan must be approved by the Municipal Council or equivalent body.
• The action plan must clearly specify the Covenant mitigation (i.e. at least 30% CO2 reduction by 2030) and adaptation commitments.
• The action plan must be based on the results of a comprehensive Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) and Climate Risk & Vulnerability Assessment(s).
• For mitigation, the action plan must cover the key sectors of activity (Municipal, Tertiary, Residential and Transport).

1. The Baseline Emission Inventory must cover at least three out of four key sectors.
2. The mitigation actions must cover at least two out of four key sectors.

The Covenant signatory will be contacted if the online template is deemed incomplete or if any additional information is needed.

Note:

The indicative timeframe for SEAP/SECAP analysis is six months.

For specific information on the assessment of your action plan the Joint Research Centre can be contacted via: jrc-com-technical-helpdesk@ec.europa.eu

In cases where a Covenant Coordinator is coordinating the action plans, a grouped analysis can be carried out by the JRC in order to provide a faster feedback. If your province/region has developed a common approach to assist signatories with their action plans you are kindly invited to contact the JRC: jrc-com-technical-helpdesk@ec.europa.eu (more information here).

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 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.

If 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.

Estimates 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.

The 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.

Monitoring and evaluating results is important for following up on the main achievements and for continuously improving your action plan (in case corrective measures are needed). Covenant Signatories are committed to regularly submit monitoring reports to show the results achieved at a glance, both in terms of measures implemented and CO2emissions reduction.

Please consult the Quick Reference Guide on Monitoring for further information.

1) Action reporting

Every two years after having submitted their Action Plan, Covenant Signatories have to monitor their progress in an Action Reporting including:

Report on the implementation status of their actions in qualitative terms

Update of the Adaptation Scoreboard, The Risk and Vulnerability Assessment and the choice of updating the Adaptation Action Tab.

2) Full reporting

Every four years after having submitted their Action Plan, Covenant Signatories have to provide a more quantitative report – the Full reporting, including:

Monitoring Emission Inventory and quantified outcomes of the actions implemented, such as: energy savings, renewable energy production, CO2emissions reduction.

An update of the Adaptation Scoreboard, the Risk and Vulnerability Assessment and a minimum update of 3 key adaptation actions

The reporting requirements are the minimum and both the Action Reporting and the Full reporting can be done as often as the Signatory find it relevant to have a status of its progress towards fulfilling their commitments. Please consult the “Quick Reference Guide on Monitoring” and the “Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy Reporting Guidelines” for further information available in the website library.

Covenant Signatories are invited to use the on-line submission system available via the website restricted area: ‘My Covenant‘.

The procedure includes the following steps:

• Log in to ‘My Covenant’ using your personal identifiers – You can retrieve your password at any time under the ‘sign-in’ section.
• Fill in the ‘Monitoring template’ in English – Click on ‘My progress’ > ‘Get started’ or ‘Fill in a monitoring template’ in the blue menu at the top of the homepage. Choose if you wish to monitor by making use of Action Reporting (without including a Monitoring Emission Inventory (MEI)) or Full Reporting (including at least one recent MEI). Please note that all the green cells are mandatory. Note also that you must submit at least three actions as Benchmarks of Excellence.
• Upload your Monitoring Report document (optional) – After filling in the monitoring template, if you wish to add your Monitoring Report document click on ‘Upload monitoring document’ and upload it in a PDF format. If you do not wish to do so, proceed by clicking ‘Go to submission’.
• Validate your online Monitoring submission – Click on ‘submit’ in order to have your monitoring template officially submitted. A preliminary checking system of the template will be made available in 2017, allowing the detection of errors or inconsistencies. For this, you should click on the ‘See notification checklist’ button. This will be run through a parallel online application, developed and managed by the JRC.

Please consult the Reporting Guidelines available in the website library for step by step guidance on the process of completing the template.

To request an extension of the deadline for submitting your monitoring template please provide a short explanation for the extension request to info@eumayors.eu. You will receive a confirmation, when the extension has been granted.

If you are an individual Signatory (i.e. not belonging to any official Covenant Coordinator):

A 9-month extension may be granted to individual Signatories where circumstances, outside the local authority’ control, delay the completion and submission of the monitoring report by the official submission date.

If you belong to an official Covenant Coordinator:

When supported by an official Covenant Coordinator, the Coordinator can ask for an 18-months extension for all supported signatories.

Covenant signatories have to do the following actions:

• Log in to ‘My Covenant‘.
• Go to ‘My Action Plan’ > ‘My Sustainable Energy Action Plan’ and select among their list actions to be highlighted as Benchmarks of Excellence by clicking on the ‘star’ icon. Please note that only actions currently in place are eligible for submission.

Fill in all the information in English or Russian: provide a short description of the highlighted actions along with key figures in terms of CO2 reduction, energy savings, renewable energy, implementation cost and/or jobs created.

Covenant Coordinators and Supporters should adopt the following procedure:

• Log in to ‘My Covenant‘.
• Go to ‘My Benchmarks’ > ‘Add a new Benchmark’.
• Complete all the information in English or Russian, including a short description, the signatories involved and the category to which the Benchmark of Excellence refers.

Note: The Covenant of Mayors Office reserves the right to remove from the public website any submitted Benchmark of Excellence, if the information provided is incomplete and/or if, in the case of signatories’ Benchmarks, the action is not in the implementation stage.

Benchmarks of Excellence are proposed as relevant examples of local initiatives which Covenant Signatories, Coordinators and Supporters have realized in their territories and feel particularly proud of, and moreover endorse as useful actions for other local authorities to replicate.

The Benchmarks of Excellence catalogue provides an online platform for promoting good practices and showcasing actions that have a large replication potential. The catalogue can be explored here.

When submitting their Monitoring template, Covenant signatories are required to submit at least three implemented actions as Benchmarks of Excellence, for which they shall provide more detailed information.

A Climate and Energy Day is a local event that aims to raise public awareness on issues such as energy efficiency, the use of renewable energy sources, resilience to climate change and the links between energy and climate change. Usually organized during a specific period, the types of events may vary, but often include activities such as workshops, exhibitions, guided visits and open-door days. Examples of local Energy Days in the Covenant online agenda.

Energy Days may also be held together with other events (for example, with the day of the city/town) organized by municipal authorities and/or other organizations.

During event organization attention should be paid to availability of such information materials as brochures, leaflets, prospectuses that facilitate access of residents and event participants to information.

As the Action Plan concerns the whole territory – not only municipal buildings and vehicles but also private housing, tertiary sector and transport – it is thus crucial to involve local stakeholders and citizens in the preparation and implementation of the Action Plan.

Each Covenant signatory can increase the level of their involvement through efficient communication and awareness raising activities focused on their energy and climate objectives.

On the Covenant of Mayors website, you can find inspiration for your local energy days in the agenda of CoM-relevant events.

Furthermore, every year the European Commission hosts the European Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) focusing on energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. An essential part of EUSEW is the Local Energy Days, organized by local authorities throughout Europe.

A Local Energy Day is defined as a not-for-profit event, activity, project, exhibition or display that promotes energy efficiency or renewable energy. Activities such as exhibitions, conferences, online events, performances, guided tours, open door days, workshops, media campaigns and concerts are all eligible.

Full support from EUSEW is available by info@eusew.eu

Horizon 2020 is the main EU Research and Innovation programme with nearly €80 billion of funding available over seven years (2014 to 2020). The programme is structured in three main pillars: Excellent Science, Industrial Leadership and Societal Challenges. These pillars are divided into different priority areas. Two areas are of particular interest to local authorities: ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ and ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’.

The main priorities identified for local authorities under the area of ‘Secure, Clean and Efficient Energy’ for each focus area are as follows:

• Energy Efficiency: EE-5, EE-6, EE-8, EE-9, EE-10, EE-11, EE-15, EE-19, EE-22, EE-23, EE-24, EE-25.
• Competitive Low-Carbon Energy: LCE-21
• Smart Cities and Communities: SCC-1, SCC-02, SCC-03
• Other actions: B.1.4. Innovative financing for sustainable energy (EIB-ELENA Facility)

With respect to the area of ‘Smart, Green and Integrated Transport’, some of the main priorities identified under the ‘Mobility for Growth’ call are:

• Urban mobility: MG-4.4, MG-4.5,
• Logistics: MG-5.3
• Intelligent transport systems: MG-6.1, MG-6.2, MG-6.3
• Socio-economic and behavioral research and forward-looking activities for policy making: MG-8.4, MG-8.5

For more information:

• See all calls under Horizon 2020 here.
• General information on Horizon 2020, including how to apply for funding, can be found here.

For any question related to the Energy Efficiency Call, contact EASME-Energy@ec.europa.eu or your H2020 National Contact Point.

Covenant Supporters are associations of local and regional authorities, networks, thematic local and regional agencies and not-for-profit organizations with the capacity to promote the Covenant of Mayors and to mobilize and support their members and/or local authorities to attain the Covenant of Mayors’ objectives. They leverage their advocacy, communication and networking activities to promote the Covenant of Mayors initiative and support the commitments of their signatories.

The list of Covenant Supporters may be found here.

Having expert knowledge of the regulatory, legislative and financial framework under which they operate, Covenant Supporters are ideally placed to provide tailored advice to signatories and identify synergies with existing initiatives.

They can also provide technical expertise to Covenant signatories. Tasks to be undertaken by a Covenant Supporter include:

• Promote the Covenant of Mayors initiative, mobilizing existing and potential signatories (adaptation of Covenant promotional materials to the national or regional context, inform about it through newsletters, website, workshops, events).
• Support and advise Covenant of Mayors signatories.
• Support exchanges and share knowledge, experiences, best practices, tools or resources relevant to Covenant signatories.
• Work in Partnership with other Covenant Supporters and National/Territorial Coordinators, Signatories and stakeholders involved in the Covenant of Mayors-related policies to foster joint action and promote a coordinated approach.
• Better accompany their activities of own members and/or local authorities on sustainable energy and adaptation to climate change
• Participate in Covenant of Mayors activities, and help identify relevant events where the Covenant of Mayors could be promoted.
• Report regularly, and not less than every two years, to the Covenant of Mayors Office on the activities carried out in the framework of the initiative, and participate in the strategic implementation of the Covenant.

Covenant Supporters’ participation in the initiative will be suspended by the Covenant of Mayors Office in case of non-compliance with the above-mentioned commitments.

The advantages of becoming Covenant Supporter are manifold:

• Endorsement and recognition from the European Commission.
• Large visibility on an international scale, notably through promotion of their actions on the Covenant website.
• Networking and experience and knowledge-sharing with European counterparts.
• Participation in dedicated discussion groups, workshops and other experience-sharing platforms.
• Last but not least, consolidation of territorial development and strengthening of local governance.

In practice, your organization as Covenant Supporter has access to the password-protected area of the website ’My Covenant’, which offers a platform to share information and key data with the whole Covenant community, and increase the visibility of your organization.

Through My Covenant, you can:

• Keep your profile always up-to-date;
• Make your Benchmarks of Excellence (i.e. your key implemented actions) visible to the Covenant community and beyond.
• Upload and share useful resources on the Capacity sharing platform, and participate to discussion groups.
• Publish your events in the agenda.
• Network with the Covenant community (through forums, webinars, events …) and get inspired by their actions.

The extranet (My Covenant) and the public profile are synchronized: most of the information you enter in the extranet directly feeds into the public website.

If your organization is interested in becoming an official Covenant Supporter, it should go through the following process:

• Fill in the online adhesion form.
• After confirmation of eligibility, fill-in and sign the commitment statement you will receive, and send it back to the Covenant Helpdesk (info-east@eumayors.eu)

Upon reception of the duly filled-in and signed commitment statement, the Covenant of Mayors Office will create an online profile for your organization that will allow you to actively participate in the Covenant of Mayors community and help you better support your associated signatories.

I have signed a partnership agreement to be Covenant Supporter in 2015 or before, do I have to join to the new initiative?

No, there is no obligation for existing Covenant of Mayors Supporters, LAREAs or Associated Partners to join the new initiative. The organization will keep its status, and can decide if and when to renew its commitments to support signatories in achieving their targets for 2030, and develop their adaptation actions. You should however encourage your members and signatories of your territory to join the new initiative in order to scale up their ambitions.

I am not a Covenant Supporter yet and I would like to join the new initiative, how can I join?

To obtain the status of Covenant Supporter or to renew your commitment, please refer to “How to apply”

Covenant Coordinators are public authorities that are in a position to provide strategic guidance, technical and financial support to Covenant of Mayors signatories and municipalities willing to sign up to it.

Alongside financial assistance, Covenant Coordinators typically support signatories in conducting a CO2 emission inventory and/or a climate risk assessment, as well as in preparing and implementing their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans.

European Commission recognizes two types of Coordinators:

• Covenant Territorial Coordinators are decentralized authorities, such as regions, provinces or grouping of local authorities,
• Covenant National Coordinators are national public bodies such as ministries or national energy agencies.

The list of Covenant Coordinators may be found here.

The European Commission recognizes Covenant Coordinators as important allies to support Covenant of Mayors signatories to meet their commitments and increase the impact of the Covenant.

Typical tasks to be undertaken by a Covenant Coordinator include:

• Promote accession to the Covenant of Mayors and support experience and knowledge sharing between (existing and potential) Covenant Signatories.
• Provide technical and strategic assistance to signatory municipalities for the development, implementation and monitoring of their Sustainable Energy Action Plans / Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans.
• Provide financial support to signatories, either in the form of direct support (grants, subsidies, etc.) and/or via human resources allocated to technical support.
• Work in partnership with other Covenant National/Territorial Coordinators and Supporters to foster joint action and promote a coordinated approach.
• Participate in Covenant of Mayors activities and help identify relevant events where the Covenant of Mayors could be promoted.
• Report regularly, and not less than every two years, to the Covenant of Mayors Office on the activities carried out to support signatories and participate in the strategic implementation of the Covenant.

Covenant Coordinators’ participation in the initiative will be suspended by the Covenant of Mayors Office in case of non-compliance with the above-mentioned commitments.

The advantages of becoming Covenant Coordinator are manifold:

• Endorsement and recognition from the European Commission.
• Large visibility on an international scale, notably through promotion of their actions on the Covenant website.
• Networking and experience and knowledge-sharing with European counterparts.
• Scientific and technical feedback on tools and methodologies developed.
• Participation in dedicated discussion groups, workshops and other experience-sharing platforms.
• Last but not least, consolidation of territorial development and strengthening of local governance.

In practice, your administration as Covenant Coordinator, has access to the password-protected area of the website ‘My Covenant’, which offers a platform to share information and key data with the whole Covenant community and to increase the visibility of your administration.

Through My Covenant, you can:

• Keep your profile but also the local authorities’ profiles associated to yours, always up-to-date;
• Invite signatories to be linked to your online profile;
• Keep track of your signatory’s progress (SEAP, SECAP, monitoring…);
• Submit a 18-month extension of your signatories SEAP submission deadline. See how to request an extension;
• Request a 18-month extension of your signatories monitoring submission deadline. See how to request an extension;
• Make your Benchmarks of Excellence (i.e. your key implemented actions) visible to the Covenant community and beyond;
• Upload and share useful resources on the Capacity sharing platform and participate in discussion groups;
• Publish your events in the agenda;
• Network with the Covenant community (through the forums, webinars, events…) and get inspired by their actions.

The extranet (My Covenant) and the public profile are synchronized; most of the information you enter in the extranet directly feeds into the public website.

If your administration is interested in becoming an official Covenant Coordinator, it should go through the following process:

• Fill-in the on-line adhesion form;
• After confirmation of eligibility, fill-in and sign the commitment statement you will receive, and send it back to the Covenant Helpdesk (info-east@eumayors.eu)

Upon reception of the duly filled-in and signed commitment statement, the Covenant of Mayors Office will create an online profile for your administration that will allow you to actively participate in the Covenant of Mayors community and help you better support your associated signatories.

I have signed a partnership agreement to be Covenant Coordinator in 2015 or before, do I have to join the new initiative?

No, there is no obligation for existing Covenant of Mayors Coordinators to join the new initiative. The administration will keep its status, and can decide if and when to renew its commitments to support signatories in achieving their targets for 2030, and develop their adaptation measures. You should however encourage signatories of your territory to join the new initiative in order to scale up their ambitions.

I am not a Covenant Coordinator yet and I would like to join the new initiative, how can I join?

To obtain the status of Covenant Coordinator or to renew your commitment, please refer to “How to apply”.

Achieving the requirements and objectives of the Covenant of Mayors does not only require political commitment, but also technical capacities. Local and regional energy agencies have been active in these fields for decades and their knowledge and expertise in local energy policy could be very useful for the Covenant signatories. Hence the Covenant of Mayors is a good opportunity for Energy Agencies to have their role better recognized and to gain more visibility to their actions.

Local and regional energy agencies should play a double role deriving from their missions: first, as promoters of the Covenant of Mayors towards the cities and towns in their areas, and second, as providers of technical expertise for the Covenant signatories, especially those lacking the necessary financial and/or human resources to fulfill their commitments under the Covenant.

Hence, LAREAs are encouraged to enter (re)new(ed) cooperation agreements directly with the public authority (ies) of their territory to support them in achieving the requirements and objectives of the Covenant of Mayors. LAREAs can become Covenant Supporters and can also work in close co-operation with the Covenant Coordinators, acting as their armed wing to deliver technical support to Covenant signatories.

National energy agencies can be involved as ‘Covenant Coordinators’.

Local and regional energy agencies can become Covenant Supporter by signing a commitment document in which they engage in supporting local and regional authorities on their territories. More information on the procedure here.

The cooperation platform is an e-mail discussion list targeted at signatories of the Covenant of Mayors from the former East Bloc and post-soviet countries. These municipalities share a common history and former administrative structure, which influence the operational framework of these local authorities until today. The cooperation platform gives signatories the possibility to exchange with each other on the topics of BEI/SEAP elaboration and implementation and monitoring. It should especially enable beginners to receive advice from frontrunners.

Covenant Signatories, Coordinators and Supporters from the Covenant of Mayors in former East bloc and post-soviet countries.

Any technical question or recommendation related to BEI/SEAP elaboration and implementation, and monitoring. For administrative questions (on topics such as password, extranet, extension of deadlines etc.) please contact the relevant helpdesk: info-east[at]eumayors.eu (Covenant of Mayors East initiative) or info[at]eumayors.eu (CoMO).

You are free to write in English or Russian.

Enter the extranet ‘my covenant` with your e-mail address and password. Go to ‘my account’ > ‘my profile’ and subscribe to the platform by clicking on ‘yes’ for the Covenant East Discussion List.

Go to http://lists.eumayors.eu/sympa and click on ‘First Login?’. Enter your e-mail address and click on ‘Request fist password’. The password will be sent to your e-mail address. Please also check if it landed in spam.

Using the cooperation platform, you can send messages to everybody else who has subscribed to it. When you have subscribed to the platform, you can send a message by sending an e-mail to the e-mail address: covenant-east-discussions@lists.eumayors.eu. Everybody subscribed in the discussion list will receive your e-mail with your question. If you want to answer to a question please respond the e-mail, by replying to covenant-east-discussions@lists.eumayors.eu

To unsubscribe the cooperation platform please enter the extranet ‘My Covenant` with your e-mail address and password. Go to ‘my account’ > ‘my profile’ and unsubscribe the platform by clicking on ‘no’ for the Covenant East Discussion List.