The role of analytical tools in supporting sustainable local and regional energy and climate policies

Energy and climate decision-making is a complex issue that involves interconnected systems (energy supply, transport, households, etc.) requiring a comprehensive modeling approach. In the latest years regional and local authorities have assumed a leading role in facing climate challenges and contributing to the Europe 2020 objectives, although a main barrier is still represented by their little knowledge of local energy systems. Municipal energy plans and the related energy balances are often compulsory only for larger cities (as in the case of the Italian Law n. 10/91) and data availability is a common problem due to the absence of adequate statistics or databases at local and regional scale. On the other hand, initiatives such as the Covenant of Mayors have boosted the development of sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) that are based on the compilation of energy and CO2 inventories, covering key target sectors (buildings and transport, usage of renewable energies and CHP). Despite the large number of decision support tools made available by the scientific community (e.g. MESSAGE, MARKAL/TIMES, LEAP), municipalities and regional authorities rarely use analytical tools to support the policy-making process. These tools have different features and fields of application requiring different levels of expertise. This study aims at providing energy planners and local/regional administrations with an overview of the most effective analytical tools that support energy and climate decision making. The broad scope is to foster public authorities to adopt analytical tools for strategic planning in order to improve steadily their energy performances and design comprehensive plans with a long-term vision in compliance with the energy and climate targets at European and national scale.