The EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy is an initiative of the European Commission bringing together thousands of local governments that want to secure a better future for their citizens.
The Covenant of Mayors is the largest movement of local authorities committed to taking climate and energy action in the world. In Europe, the Covenant gathers more than 11,000 local authorities of all sizes. By joining the initiative, mayors and local councils make a political commitment to:
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions on their territory
- Increase resilience and prepare for the adverse impacts of climate change, and
- Tackle energy poverty as one key action to ensure a just transition.
These commitments are consistent with the EU-wide climate and energy objectives.
To follow up on the political commitment, Covenant signatory cities and towns should develop an action plan to identify the main sources of emissions, conduct a risk and vulnerability assessment, undertake an energy poverty assessment and based on these, respectively identify actions to reduce emissions, increase resilience and tackle energy poverty. These plans and actions are to be periodically reviewed to monitor progress and further implementation.
The Energy Poverty Advisory Hub (EPAH) supports Covenant signatory cities specifically on energy poverty by providing guidance and technical assistance to tackle energy poverty at the local level in line with their Covenant commitment.
The Covenant of Mayors and EPAH have joined forces to develop a methodology for 1) diagnosing, 2) planning and 3) implementing actions to tackle energy poverty. Each methodological step is accompanied by a practical guidebook, aiming to give local governments and practitioners concrete procedures and a clear path on how to address energy poverty.
1. Diagnosing: Handbook 1 - A Guide to Energy Poverty Diagnosis - provides guidance on this step.
2. Planning: Handbook 2 - A Guide to Planning Energy Poverty Mitigation Actions - presents different practical steps to identify the most feasible and impactful actions to prioritise at the local level.
3. Implementation: Handbook 3 – will be released in the second half of 2024 and will guide signatories on action implementation.
The EPAH and the Covenant of Mayors, together with the Joint Research Center, collaborated in the development of a set of local energy poverty indicators and a reporting template.
From January 2025, Covenant signatories are requested to report via MyCovenant on their energy poverty goal, a minimum one indicator and one energy poverty action.
In the coming years, EPAH will continue providing learning materials, online courses and trainings, events, and direct technical assistance within this framework of cooperation between the two initiatives in order to support and empower Covenant local authorities in tackling energy poverty.
You are always welcome to request more information about the close collaboration between EPAH and the Covenant of Mayors via our helpdesk:
EPAH: info@energypoverty.eu
Covenant of Mayors: info@eumayors.eu