A comparative analysis of local sustainable energy strategies among European communities

An integrated and comparative analysis of local sustainable energy strategies of 19 European communities located in 15 different countries (Municipality of Tulln (AT), Municipality of Worms (DE), Municipality of Slagelse (DK), Municipality of Aigaleo (EL), City of Skopje (FYRM), City of Ivanic-Grad (HR), The Local Government of Budapest District 18 and Municipality of Szentes (HU), The Potenza Province and the Municipality of Potenza (IT), Municipality of Kaunas (LT), Municipality of Jas?o (PL), Municipality of Torre Vedras (PT), Municipality of Avrig and Harghita County Council (RO), City Municipality Ptuj (SI), City of Nitra (SK), County Durham and Sheffield City Region (UK)) was performed. Three main aspects were considered: the policy making context, the energy market and best practices exchange, the stakeholders involvement to raise community awareness and to foster behavioral changes. The strategic plans developed to promote energy efficiency and renewable energy sources by different local communities inside the EU were compared to highlight similarities and differences in order to evaluate their contribution to the achievement of EU strategic targets on energy and climate, as well as to set up transferable and customizable methodologies, tools and guidelines to be used at local scale for the design and implementation of action plans and sustainable energy policies. The analysis focused on the following issues: i) Regional contextual framework: to highlight previous actions and current regional motivations, local trends, resources and potentials, constraints and fragilities; ii) Vision and main OBJECTIVES: what the region aspires to become. It is a long term view and concentrates on the future; the main objectives should identify the results that the regions want to achieve; iii) Designed Strategy: the main strategic lines of the Local Implementation Plans, the key interventions and measures and/or the main projects to be developed in the future; iv) Financial sources: the identification of the monetary resources to fund the defined strategy; v) Monitoring mechanisms: the proposed monitoring actions to verify the effective implementation of the designed strategy. This work summarizes the work developed in the framework of the projects INTERREG IVC RENERGY - Regional Strategies for Energy Conscious Communities (http://www.renergyproject.eu/), and SEE RE-SEEties (http://www.re-seeties.eu/) both aimed at valorising endogenous resources use and improving, by means of interregional cooperation, the effectiveness of regional development policies in the area of energy.