This is my new custom code!

For three years in a row, Viken County Council has created and updated its free and publicly available Climate Dashboard for all 356 Norwegian municipalities (Kommune) and 11 Counties (Fylkeskommune). The Dashboard visualizes statistics and indicators that are collected from various official sources. In addition to helping municipalities with data collection, the dashboard provides comparison pages which may inspire the interested actors in setting creative climate strategies and measures. Over these three years the dashboard has been used in generating/updating SECAPs by many, at both local and regional levels. Here is the link to our Climate Dashboard: https://viken.no/tjenester/planlegging/analyse-statistikk-og-kart/klima-energi-og-miljo/

Plans can often be large and cumbersome documents, that take a long time to read and understand. Viken County Council has challenged this through their 1-page plan for how to become fossil free. This plan focuses on the County Council's operations (public transport, road building, secondary schools, and dentistry): https://viken.no/_f/p1/i0bf0ad6c-5f4d-4168-a8e3-d57b3405f5ed/plan-for-fossilfri-eiga-verksemd.PDF The most callenging part is replacing all cars and machinery before 2028, and to accomplish this a "Replacement plan" has been developed: https://viken.no/_f/p1/i7387fa4b-ed55-48b2-9040-490346c3e6eb/utskiftingsplan-2021-2022.PDF In 2021, about 1 million Euros was spent on biogas minibuses and electric front wheel loaders, in addition to electric cars and charging infrastructure. For 2022, the plan is to purchase a number of larger electric and biogas trucks, and consider replacing some of the machines that are used for educational purposes with digital similators.

This survey is carried out by the Covenant of Mayors - Europe Office, on behalf of the European Commission. It gives you the possibility to have your say in the consolidation and further development of the Covenant reporting and monitoring framework in Europe. https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/CoMEU2021Survey

In order to harmonize the energy policy with the European Green Plan, the Government of the Republic of Croatia has developed a strategy for low-carbon development of the Republic of Croatia until 2030. You can find out what it is about at: https://mingor.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/klimatske_aktivnosti/odrzivi_razvoj/NUS/lts_nus_eng.pdf

Urban mobility plans are becoming increasingly important in urban spatial planning. Many cities recognize them as an opportunity to improve traffic conditions, but also as an opportunity to achieve energy goals in the green economy. One of such plans is the plan of urban mobility of the City of Varaždin, which you can see at the following link: https://varazdin.hr/upload/2019/02/plan_urbane_mobilnosti_citywalk_varazdin_2018_5c593d72077ed.pdf

The fifth generation of district heating systems is knocking on the door. How cities in the Republic of Croatia are preparing for its implementation, as well as the current state of district heating systems in the Republic of Croatia, see in this document: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/croatia_report_eed_art_141update_hr.pdf

Many cities in the Republic of Croatia want to contribute to the fight against climate change, so they decide to develop strategies and plans to achieve the set goals. One of the cities that is actively working to achieve sustainability and participate in the fight against climate change is the city of Rovinj, and you can see their plan at: http://www.lifesecadapt.eu/fileadmin/user_upload/ALLEGATI_LIFESECADAPT/EXCHANGE/C3_Adoption_of_Local_Climate_adaptation_strategy_and_plans_through_SEAP_integration/Mitigation_Strategies_and_Action_Plans_-_SECAPs/ROVINJ_Mitigation_Plan-SECAP.pdf

In order to improve the energy standard of buildings in the Republic of Croatia, the Government has decided to develop a strategy to achieve this goal. You can study the strategy at: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/default/files/documents/hr_ltrs_2020.pdf

In this comprehensive document, the Government of the Republic of Croatia proposes a series of ideas on economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic. Check out what exactly it is at the following link: https://planoporavka.gov.hr/UserDocsImages/dokumenti/Planoporavkaiotpornostisrpanj2021..pdf?vel=13435491

Here is the plan of integrated public transport of the city of Zagreb with neighboring counties. You can see the challenges and opportunities in development at the following link: http://www.ipzp.hr/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MPPSGZZKZ-F2_10_SMP_V03.pdf

Have you seen the Mission Board´s proposal to the EC for a mission on climate- neutral and smart cities published on sept 2020? https://ec.europa.eu/info/publications/100-climate-neutral-cities-2030-and-citizens_en

An interesting document for our Croatian members has been added to the documents section. You can find it under the following link:https://pentahelix.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Croatian_Building_Strategy_2050.pdf

Do you have any experience integrating SECAPs with other municipal plans? We have seen a few examples lately in Norway, for instance the municipal plan in Indre Østfold has set ambitious climate targets, so has the regional plan strategy for Viken county. In Nesodden, they chose to integrate climate and environmental issues, and we have heard from the west coast that Ålesund and their neighbours are planning to integrate climate, spatial planning, and transport, into one plan. The Nesodden plan is currently published for public scrutiny - what do you think? https://pub.framsikt.net/plan/nesodden/plan-86932510-6f9f-4222-9186-007ba3ef364b/#/

Also this might be interesting for Belgian partners - how to communicate climate

If you plan to develop a new energy and climate plan in Belgium - PentaHelix Dutch partner WVI has shared a very useful linformation - they usually collect data from 3 important sources: www.burgemeestersconvenant.be; www.klimaatportaal.be ; www.geopunt.be

Local governments that are part of the Covenant of Mayors have committed to contributing to the implementation of EU’s climate and energy objectives. Developing circular economy in cities can be an efficient way to achieve their commitments. The EU-funded REFLOW project will deliver solutions to enable this transition. The Reflow OS is a free and open-source software. https://reflowproject.eu/

Flemish municipalities signing and executing CoM 2030, taking actions in the own organisation as example and working with stakeholders are reworded by the Flemish Government. They will get extra funding through the Local Energy- and Climate pact, approved on 4th of June 2021. Great news for the Flemish pilots and replicators within PentaHelix!

Joining a European project can be an excellent way of increasing your ambition level and budget for climate actions. Apart from an idea, you of course need to find a suitable programme and partners. There are some excellent partner search tools for that online, for example: Interreg NWE (https://www.nweurope.eu/apply/submit-an-idea/) , Erasmus+ (https://epale.ec.europa.eu/nl/partner-search), Interreg Vla-Ned (only for cross-border projects in Flanders and Netherland:https://www.grensregio.eu/mijn-project/partnersearch). This one on the EC's funding and tenders portal is probably the most comprehensive one: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/partner-search . If you know any more, post them in a reply!

The PentaHelix approach, in which you involve all stakeholders in your climate policies, works! Within Flanders (Belgium) a call for funding was designed on the principles of it. Ideas for local climate action originating from climate panels were eligible. WVI submitted an idea from one of the climate panels of the PentaHelix pilot group Klimaatoverleg Midwest. It got approved! Read more about it in the newsarticle on this website.

The Covenant of Mayors set new ambitions - for a fairer, climate-neutral Europe - in alignment with the European 2030 and 2050 goals. During the online ceremony on 21st April, the word got out. Read all about it in the news&events section of the website of www.eumayors.eu or via https://www.eumayors.eu/news-and-events/news/1856-european-mayors-take-joint-action-for-a-fairer,-climate-neutral-europe.html.

Viken county council is aiming for a 80 % reduction of climate gas emissions, and climate neutrality within the next 10 years. That means we have to find a way to capture and store carbon equivalent of 872 000 tons CO2e. So far we've looked at industrial carbon capture, where the biogene part is estimated to 200 000 tons, biochar (~100 - 200 000 tons), grazing (~100 000 tons), and methane capture for biogas (~130 000 tons). We have a lot of forest, but are not certain how it would be best to consider carbon capture in those areas, since we haven't seen how LULUCF and other regulations should be utilized on local and regional level. Also, we will need a lot of biomass from the forest to reach the 80 % emission cut target, since this requires phasing out all fossil fuels and many fossil materials. Have any of you considered this issue? Do you have any tips or ideas?

Worth taking a look! The biggest update in years for Google Earth shows you how the earth evolved in the last 37 years. This 4th dimension is added with Timelapse. Visit g.co/Timelapse and explore for any place on earth 5 themes for which you can see the changes. All of them are crucial in PentaHelix, with “Warming planet” on top. In g.co/TimelapseVideo you can choose to see the impact in more than 800 videos.

Presentation of Pentahelix project in the Forum "Ayuntamientos por el Clima", with IBERDROLA support. Nice opportunity to spread lessons learned

Small municipalities become an example in Ávila. Hoyocasero 300 inhabitans

Proud to become 20 municipalities working to raise awareness on energy efficiency in Ávila

Check PentaHelix library again! There are 16 SECAPs ready in Norwegian, Latvian, Croatian, Belgian and Spanish!

Interesting Workshop on Urban Green Policy: Environment and Economical Effects: "CityZen Workshop" (Digital event), 21-22 Jan 202. It sounds very zen... Organized in the frame of INTERREG EUROPE. All information in: https://docs.google.com/forms/u/0/d/e/1FAIpQLSeECjJ0qidoXt068mrjMtjg6nAASI1W9HFBx263ZHeEGWCZUg/formResponse

Learning from each other is crucial. The Covenant of Mayors supports us within their new peer learning programme: https://www.eumayors.eu/news-and-events/news/1840-launch-of-the-covenant-of-mayors-peer-learning-programme-2021-2022-apply-now.html. Co-creation, the key element of PentaHelix, is one of the possibilities to exchange on. I had the honor to be one of the experts in a peer exchange on this matter in 2019, and can recommend it!

In Belgium, many municipalities have ambitious targets on planting new trees. It is often the first and most obvious climate measure local governments decide on. However, in task force meetings, NGO's often stress the need to preserve existing trees and other green infrastructure, since this has a greater impact on overall CO2-emissions and climate adaptation. I was wondering if there are good practices in other countries of, a) keeping an inventory of net afforestation in regions or municipalities (since now, new trees are counted, but not the net result including trees that were cut). Are there any tools available for that (in English preferably)? b) if there are good practices in preserving existing and ancient trees, e.g. making them green heritage.

On 3 December 2020, for the first time, the International City Cooperation (IUC) programme is extending City-to-City event participation to all interested persons, cities and sustainability leaders. Speakers from across the globe tackle topics as green recovery, climate ambition, energy transition etc. Information & registration on the IUC programme website.: https://iuc.eu/index.php?id=686

Today Jelgava pilot city, Latvia, approved its new SECAP! Jelgava decided to join Covenant also for the next period - up to 2030! We are so excited!

Covenant of Mayors provide with a brand new communication tool for Covenant of Mayors signatories - You can now publicly display your belonging to the European Covenant of Mayors movement thanks to a sign that you can get produced from an official template. You can find the template in all official EU languages in the online library of Covenant of Mayors website here https://www.eumayors.eu/support/library.html (you can filter by language). Covenant encourages signatories to display their commitments on public buildings and facilities, in the town hall... Let citizens know about city's climate and energy action!

It seems that the expectations for an EU greener budget might be reduced: https://www.euractiv.com/section/climate-environment/news/eu-budget-plan-falls-far-short-on-climate-goals-researchers-say/ let's see what the leaders from its 27 countries will decide on Friday when meeting in Brussels

The EU is working on an classification system for sustainable activities i.e. an EU Taxonomy. Recent progress is of upmost importance for all of us working on climate change since the Technical Expert Group (TEG) has been asked to develop recommendations for technical screening criteria for economic activities that can make a substantial contribution to climate change mitigation or adaptation, while avoiding significant harm to the four other environmental objectives (sustainable use and protection of water and marine resources, transition to a circular economy, pollution prevention control, and protection and restoration of biodiversity and ecosystems). Read all about it on https://ec.europa.eu/info/business-economy-euro/banking-and-finance/sustainable-finance/eu-taxonomy-sustainable-activities_en. Pay special attention to the technical annex of the report containing the updated technical screening criteria for 70 climate change mitigation and 68 climate change adaptation activities, including criteria for ‘do no significant harm to the other environmental objectives’.

Climate adaptation measures have many benefits. There are almost endless possibilities, in the public space as well as in private areas. In Flanders a new website was launched to show what can be done. It is an attractive and practical website, filled with practical information and photos. Check out www.blauwgroenvlaanderen.be! Google translate can do wonders if you don't speak Dutch ;-).

Bring in your expertise and knowledge! As part of the commitments in the European Green Deal, the European Commission is preparing a Renovation Wave for public and private buildings to address the current low decarbonisation and energy renovation rates across the EU and deliver multiple benefits for citizens and businesses. The European Commission seeks to gather views on how to make the Renovation Wave as effective, overarching and ambitious as possible. This consultation offers stakeholders the opportunity to contribute to this process in a structured way. You can contribute to this consultation by filling in the online questionnaire. You can submit your responses in any official EU language. The deadline is 9 July 2020. The public consultation can be found here: https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12376-Commission-Communication-Renovation-wave-initiative-for-the-building-sector/public-consultation?mc_cid=572e1a8d20&mc_eid=5c85262ff8 More information on Renovation Wave: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/topics/energy-efficiency/energy-efficient-buildings/renovation-wave_en

Diputación de Avila and EREN will organize by tomorrow a workshop with the PentaHelix municipalities focus of the opportunities of the EUROPEAN CITY FACCILITY: https://energia.jcyl.es/web/jcyl/Energia/es/Plantilla100Detalle/1267710822752/Evento/1284962812940/Comunicacion

I have several municipalities that are sort of regional economic hubs, where there is a lot of industry, intensive agriculture (greenhouses) and transport. For these municipalities, it is almost literally impossible to come up with a scenario to reduce emissions 40%. So there are 2 pathways in tackling this: 1. You make an enormous assumption of reduction for these sectors, on which you have very little influence as a local government/community. E.g. for industry, I would consider counting on a 43% reduction of emissions, because this is the EU-ETS goal (2030 vs 2005). 2. You leave these sectors out and make a SECAP with measures only for buildings, local transport, renewable energy, ... this is not the signal I want to give, but it does make it easier to come up with a 'realistic' scenario for CoM. Have other partners had the same issue and what was your approach?

How coronavirus stalled climate change momentum. Emissions have fallen, but the pandemic will hit policy commitments as nations look to kick-start their economies. Interesting Financial Times article. https://www.ft.com/content/052923d2-78c2-11ea-af44-daa3def9ae03

In Klimaatoverleg Midwest (cooperation of 8 Belgian municipalities within the Covenant of Mayors) WVI rolled out the PentaHelix co-creation process to draft the climate action plan. The technical and concrete results were used in the plan itself, the general results were bundled in an inspiration guide. The input of the stakeholders (public authorities, industry/businesses, research/educational institutes, NGO’s and citizens) lead to defining 10 spearheads to achieve the climate objectives. Learn all about them in this guide (in Dutch), available in the section “PentaHelix materials for free use”!

The EU Sustainable Energy Week goes virtual this year, and PentaHelix is glad to be hosting a side event Energising the European Green Deal. Consortium member Nathalie Garré of WVI will be there presenting how multi-level approach to energy governance is important to achieve the ambitious targets set by the EU on how we have to shift the way energy is produced and consumed in the EU. Join us in this online event taking place 18 June at 10 am: https://pentahelix.eu/pentahelix-is-hosting-a-side-event-at-the-eu-sustainable-energy-week/

Yuo can find here some interested webinars on Climate Change Adaptation:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1PhYWKo1HG1zpf2YnPmkdLOcLUQgioI5X/view

The framework of the Covenant of Mayors is crucial for setting the climate policy of many municipalities and regions. Now is the time to give your input on the framework and to determine its future. Share your experience and insights via a quick survey, launched by the Covenant of Mayors: https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/CoM-EuropeSurvey2020. Have your say before 15th September!

Next Zero Emission Bus Conference in 2020 is coming now in September. Is the premier networking and learning event for fleet operators across the transportation industry, new fuel providers, and hydrogen providers to meet together and discuss the future of transportation. Learn more in this Link https://www.zebconference2020.com

Transports Metropolitans Barcelona Bus (TMB) is increasingly betting on sustainable vehicles. The public company intends to buy eight hydrogen-powered electric vehicles. TMB has tendered the acquisition for a value of 6.5 million euros, VAT included. This is the first time that the metropolitan company has opted to buy hydrogen buses. The intention is that the vehicles can join the TMB fleet in 2020, although the transaction could be delayed for a few months due to the health crisis and the consequent cessation of numerous projects.

Our college from Málaga from the Autonomous Community of Andalusia, Spain, send us information about ELVITEN. This project focuses on the city centre, where most streets are not open for traffic and will create a network of 40 electric bicycles to be offered as sharing services. If you want to know more, please, visit the web https://www.elviten-project.eu/en/

Fundación CIRCE www.fcirce.es has supported the Provincial Council of Avila in the SECAP's development for 7 municipalities of the Province of Avila. The Climate Change adaptation assessment has be done, which represent a first-time evaluation of this kind for these municipalities. The assessment follows the Covenant of Mayor methodology and has been mainly based in the Climate Change Scenarios from the Spanish Platform AdapteCCa. For this region, there is a tendency towards higher minimum and maximum temperatures, with longer heat waves and more intense precipitations events. However, the most relevant vulnerability is related to the loss and aging of the population. This assessment is a key diagnosis tool for municipalities to start planning their future while integrating the challenges that Climate Change demand.

A great tool to improve energy knowledge! © eTEACHER project. Information about energy in the EU. The scope of eTEACHER is to close the gap by combining social sciences to improve users’ behaviour, and technical skills to develop an effective and innovative energy efficiency toolbox. https://youtu.be/MmB_mfucl3Q www.eteacher-project.eu

EU City Facility, new EU-funded project which will provide financial support and services to cities and municipalities. A great opportunity to help our municipalities to develop some SECAP’s actions. https://energy-cities.eu/eu-city-facility-financial-support-and-services-to-cities-sustainable-energy-projects/

Do you know the European City Facility EUCF? Get to know it through https://eucityfacility.eu/home.html. You also find dates for webinars. Interesting for cities and municipalities wanting to invest in energy transition.

Everybody working with municipalities on climate action knows that some of the hardest questions to answer are “how well are we doing”, “how close are we to reaching our goals” and “what is the impact of my action”? On the 3rd of June, from 10 till 11:30 CEST, you can learn more about on how to break down overarching climate goals into tangible and measurable targets during a webinar organised by the Covenant of Mayors: https://www.covenantofmayors.eu/news-and-events/events/upcoming-events/2335-how-can-cities-achieve-true-climate-impact.html

How do you make an estimate of the budget your city or municipality will be spending on climate and on the actions in the SECAP? For some measures, it is quite clear, such as planting trees: you could count the entire budget as a 'climate budget'. But for other measures, such as investing in bicycle roads, you can only partly say that this is a climate measure. The same goes for staff costs: only part of what a civil servant does, can actually be attributed to climate action. CoM asks us to make an estimate of investments, operational and staff costs linked to the SECAP, how do others go about calculating this? And do you mention it in the SECAP or keep it separate? Any tips?

Hello everybody! Did anyone have the opportunity to develop a SECAP in a municipality that also is developing a SUMP? Did you know that both plans can be harmonized each other’s and that a lot of synergies among them, from both technical and resources point of views, can be exploited? If you are interested in learning more about the harmonization of SECAPs and SUMPs please take a look to the SIMPLA H2020 project (www.simpla-project.eu) and to its Guidelines for Harmonization! Also, take look to the Case Study of Monzón, a municipality located in Spain which has developed harmonized SECAP and SUMP from zero. It has been selected as best practice by Covenant of Mayors and it has been included in the Eurocities' Guidelines For Developing and Implementing a Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (Second Edition). Do you want to learn more about? Do not hesitate to contact me!

Hello once again, in this post https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/12251-Revision-of-Alternative-Fuels-Infrastructure-Directive, you can find information about the next roadmap of the future of infrastructure alternative vehicles.

Hello, It has already been opened and welcomes the European Commission’s initiative to revise Directive 2014/94/EU on the deployment of alternative fuel infrastructure (AFID) in line with the objective to make the EU climate-neutral by 2050, for which rapid uptake of zero-emission vehicles is a key cornerstone. Such revision is particularly welcomed and needed in light of the last six years of innovative developments in electric vehicles and charging, and developing hydrogen projects.

We made what we promised! Viken County Council is released the new Climate Dashboard for all Norwegian Municipalities and Counties. The Climate Dashboard is available for public in here: https://app.powerbi.com/view?r=eyJrIjoiMzU0Yzg4NTYtMmFhZC00ZWYzLTgyYTYtNWNjYTJlMjczNzE0IiwidCI6IjNkNTBkZGQ0LTAwYTEtNGFiNy05Nzg4LWRlY2YxNGE4NzI4ZiIsImMiOjh9

Earlier this winter we delivered a pellets fuelled combination heater/dryer from a farm to a building site, on a biomethane truck:

As you could read in the "news"section, WVI finished the pilot SECAP for 8 municipalities recently. In our experience, it is rather difficult for municipalities to support businesses in small-scale energy measures. All input, sharing of experiences,... is welcome!

Hi all, I know some Pentahelix-partners have had online taskforce meetings in recent weeks. Could you elaborate a bit on how you went about having these? Was it mainly the host or one main speaker that had the floor (camera and mic) and participants were allowed to add comments through a chat function? Did you actually get into a discussion or did participant give feedback afterwards? Did you discuss one main topic or several? How long did they take and how many particpants were involved? Which platform did you use? Etc. Thanks for all advice, in the IGEMO region we will probably be having some online taskforce meetings as well the next couple of months.

In times of lockdown and social distancing, it can be challenging to develop a climate action plan (or any other plan or project) with co-creation. Dr. Anatol Itten from TU Delft is working on the Interreg 2 Seas project SHIFFT and gave the very inspiring presentation 'Co-creation in times of social distancing' during the last webinar of the project. A lot of possible tools are presented.

The 356 Norwegian municipalities (Kommune) have the responsibility for preparation and implementation of energy and Climate plans (Planning and Building Act § 6-2, June 27, 2008). Making sustainable energy and Climate plans requires broad knowledge on the community’s environmental, economic and social aspects. Our experience shows that collecting data and creating indicators are rather challenging for many planners particularly in small municipalities. In response to this challenge, Viken County Council has recently made a Climate Dashboard for all Norwegian municipalities and Counties, which presents a set of useful information in one place. The Dashboard visualizes statistics and indicators that are collected from various sources. In addition to helping municipalities with data collection, the dashboard may inspire the planners through comparing the indicators and learning from best practices in other municipalities. The first version of the Climate Dashboard is made in Excel, which can be downloaded from here: (https://viken.no/tjenester/klima-miljo-og-natur/aktuelt-klima-miljo-og-natur/nytt-klimadashbord-for-viken.20875.aspx). The new version will be accessible for all in Power BI. In addition to Climate Dashboard, Viken County Council is working on an Energy Dashboard for Norwegian municipalities.

WEBINAR 21.04.2020 10:00 - 11:30 Looking for Investment – What to Expect: Smart City Project Due Diligence If you are looking for investment into your Energy, Transport & Mobility or ICT focused Smart City project potential investors will seek assurances. https://www.eucityfacility.eu/news-events/events/details.html?tx_calendarize_calendarindex=14&cHash=a29a47519581f324ed20a63e099552ce

European City Facility (EUCF) an initiative designed by cities for cities: The European City Facility is a new EU-funded project which will provide financial support and services to cities and municipalities across European Union. Its objectives are to overcome critical barriers, develop credible investment packages and mobilise finance. EUCF pretends to create a support for sustainable energy investment projects in European cities, by providing targeted financial, technical, legal and capacity-building support. The specific objectives of the EUCF are: • to provide hands-on, locally-rooted technical and financial expertise to cities to deliver at least 225 credible and scalable investment concepts, which will trigger more than €320 millions of public and private investment. • to build the capacity of at least 450 public authority staff members to develop substantial project pipelines and provide them with tools, networking and knowledge transfer opportunities which will facilitate and accelerate the implementation of the investment concepts, including via innovative financing mechanisms and project aggregation. • to facilitate access, especially for small and medium-sized municipalities, to private finance, EU funding streams and similar facilities (e.g. the European Structural and Investment Funds, the H2020 Project Development Assistance, and EIB-ELENA) and advisory services such as the European Investment Bank’s Advisory Hub to implement and amplify the expected investments. The European City Facility has been officially launched on February 19th, 2020. The first round of applications will open on 25 May with a deadline on 2 October! This round will be followed by 3 more calls for applications in the years 2021 and 2022. More information can be found in: The https://www.eucityfacility.eu/home.html

The European Commission calls on EU citizens to express their views on the planned increase of EU emissions reduction targets by 2030 and to propose new measures and policies needed to reduce CO2 emissions by June 23, 2020. The European Commission's plan is to gather information, views, opinions and suggestions from a wide range of stakeholders. Therefore, citizens, civil societies, businesses, NGOs, academia, national, regional and local authorities are invited to participate in the consultation and provide inputs. All EU language versions will became available soon in the weeks after the launch of the consultation. The online consultation is open from March 31 to June 23, 2020 at midnight (Brussels time) and you can access it here: https://bit.ly/2VydaHt

Considering the Climate Communication Guidelines that are available in the Library here: which words and phrases are we using that could make it difficult for other sectors to take part in the climate discussion? SECAP (Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan) is one that springs to mind. Do you have any other examples?

Last week I was at the demonstration of the HOTMAPS tool. It is free open source mapping and planning tool for heating and cooling, which is so useful for SECAP development since it supports authorities and energy planners to set up a strategic heating and cooling plan for their municipality (or region). The toolbox allows the user to: identify the location of current heating and cooling demand as well as supply on a map for EU28, identify renewable energy potential to supply heating and cooling for a selected area, identify waste heat potential from industrial facilities within a selected area, estimate the potential for efficient district heating options within a selected area, estimate and compare the costs of individual heating vs. district heating options within a selected area, develop scenarios for decarbonisation pathways of heating and cooling. The first version of the tool is available at www.hotmaps.eu.

I was having a discussion at a Pentahelix task force yesterday, concerning the time at which political involvement in the SECAP process is necessary. The municipalities' civil servants were afraid that asking politicians to define targets and measures too early in the process would refrain other task force members from putting forward ideas. I on the other hand warned that we should not end up in a situation where we have a detailed plan and politicians in the end decide that it is not feasible. There are of course politicians present in the task force, but they don't really commit to anything at this stage. When in the process should we ask politicians to set concrete targets for the different sectors and define which measures will be prioritised?

We have a municipality that are trying to report to Global covenant of Mayors through CDP. They are struggling with calculating emissions from waste. Do you know any standard CO2 emissions for waste fractions that they can use to calculate the emissions from tons? Their fractions are seen in the table attached.

The Covenant of Mayors offers a good framework to draft SECAPs that focus on the reduction of energetic emissions on the territory of one municipality or region. I do however feel that we need to take a holistic view on climate change and also consider emissions that do not occur through energy use, or at least not by energy being used locally. For example, a lot of emissions are caused by animal agriculture (methane) and the food we eat, by purchasing goods that were produced in other countries/continents, by travelling by car, air or ship outside our region/continent, etc. Do organisations in other countries also include goals, measures and actions on these domains in their SECAPs? Or do you feel that this would only distract from the core issues (energy) or make things too complicated, both for municipalities as for citizens/companies?

How do you integrate the climate actions with other parts of the municipalities actions? Do you have examples of plans or strategy documents where the climate targets or SECAP has been mentioned?

PentaHelix partner EBN is hosting an interesting free webinar on zero waste packaging!♻ When? Thursday 14th November 2:00pm CET More information can be found here: https://ebn.eu/index.php?lnk=M1lHN01YZWdtT1h5ZXNsRStLQVM0OHJkUXR3SkdhZEhFYjRMamthZjZLdz0=

Interesting article about the future of agriculture in Europe: https://emis.vito.be/nl/artikel/climate-change-threatens-future-farming-europe?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=updates&utm_campaign=emis_20190905

I came across this old NY Times article on nudging. It gives a great example of an innovative but quite simple measure the British Government took to get people to insulate their roofs: they offered a subsidized (but still paying) cleaning and moving service for people's attics. Their presumption was that people pile up all their mess there (as I do too, I must admit), which creates an substantial obstacle to having roof insulation installed. It seemed to work back then, because 5 times more people applied for subsidies. Does anyone have experience with these kind of measures and do you feel they could work in your community?

Last week, the county council of Østfold decided to send the regional SECAP to the public for feedback. It is also translated to English, and we welcome any and all feedback and comments. It is also made for sharing, so if you find any text, figures or illustrations you would like to use, we welcome all to “steal” from our plan. https://klimaostfold.no/climateplan/

How do you treat carbon capture? We received new national statistics today, showing that our forests and grazing areas capture more than 70 % of our CO2 emissions. Do you include carbon capture and storage in your SECAPs and targets, or do you only focus on the emission side?

In 2019, CoM office will organise very interesting webinars to help cities increase their resilience. The purpose of the webinars is to provide practical information to local authorities tailored to both cities which are in the early adaptation planning stages and to cities which are advanced and already implementing adaptation actions. More information in video.

European Commission's Joint Research Centre has just been released a new guidebook on "How to develop a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP)" . The guidebook offers a wide range of information on climate change adaptation, supported by numerous examples of good practices: https://www.eumayors.eu/news-and-events/news/1625-new-guidebook-for-covenant-signatories-how-to-develop-your-2030-action-plans.html

The Swedish region Västra Götaland has made an online class on climate friendly food for people who work with planning menus, purchasing food, cooking and serving food in hospitals, schools, etc. They have also done calculations on how the menus should be put together to reduce climate emissions, and reducing food waste: https://vgregion.pingpong.se/public/courseId/5541/lang-sv/publicPage.do

Østfold county council has a project where we test different types of fossil free machines. We have tried making an overview over machines fuelled by electricity, biogas, or hydrogen (and some hybrids). Do you know of any machines that we should include in our wiki overview? https://sites.google.com/site/arbeidsmaskiner/project-definition

We are currently looking for best practices about climate change adaptation measures. Any ideas? Thank you in advance!

We love art! Particularly when it depicts all the benefits with biogas! :) Read more at www.biogassoslofjord.no.

What kind of transportation do you use daily? Train/Car/Bike/EVs? What would you like to use? What kind of transportation suits your municipality and daily routine the best? Why and what could be done to make more people use "Green Transport"?