The Covenant of Mayors was launched on 10 February at Europe’s annual conference on sustainable energy, with more than 350 cities pledging to reduce emissions by more than the 20% target set out in the energy and climate change package. The agreement, which is a European Commission initiative, will see cities commit to coming up with sustainable energy action plans that indicate how emissions savings in the public and private sector will be reached.

 

Luc Van den Brande, the President of the Committee of the Regions explained that the commitments that have been made are not on behalf of individual mayors but on behalf of cities on the whole, and that therefore the commitments will remain when new administrations come into power. To make sure that cities are reaching their targets, Mayors will be required to report on progress in the implementation of these measures at least every two years.

€15 million of funding is being earmarked by the European Investment Bank (EIB) to set up a grant fund to ensure these goals are reached and will be used for the development of energy efficiency in addition to the sustainable energy projects. As well as the money for the fund, the EIB has promised to increase lending to the sector as well.

However a group of MEPs, while praising the Covenant, have criticised José Manuel Barroso and the Commission for ‘coming to meet the major city leaders empty-handed’, saying that €500 million had originally been set aside for the initiative. The group, which includes GLOBE EU President Anders Wijkman, were critical of the fact that this funding had not been incorporated in the final Commission draft, with the money going towards funding of carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects instead.

Whilst such a large number of cities signing up to the Covenant is good news, it is clear that different cities will have different starting points and thus different corresponding strategies for achieving their aim. For example Munich became a member of the Climate Alliance in 1991 and has therefore been working on reducing emissions since that time. It is consequently far better placed to achieve its targets than Budapest, whose mayor has warned off the difficulties it faces as a more industrialised city.

The agreement nevertheless represents a ‘big step forward on the 'greening' of the EU's transport and energy policy’, according to a statement by the group of MEPs.