ENESCOM in action

Auteur: Cristiano BOTTONE, ENESCOM Communications Officer, Italy -

Pour plus d'informations concernant le projet ENNEREG, n'hésitez pas à contacter Pierrick Yalamas de Rhônalpénergie-Environnement. Vous trouverez plus d'information sur les activités des projets de la "Communauté d'Energie Durable" dans le premier numéro de la lettre d'information.

The ENESCOM project’s activities are gathering momentum. The first part of the work consisted in data collection on energy use in the areas covered by the project. Obstacles were met, but mostly overcome, and a more than acceptable level of data was collected. Currently, these are undergoing comparison analyses, with the aim of gaining deeper insight on the consumption and emission profiles of the areas administered by the 14 European partners to the project. This information will serve as common platform for later activities.

Image: Awareness-raising meeting at St Ignatius College, attended by about 250 students

Meanwhile, local teams have begun working in the field, organizing meetings and seminars targeting local administrators and other stakeholders. Every partner organized meetings with the Covenant Pioneers, issued press releases, participated in television programs and generally managed outreach communication. Specific training programs for primary and secondary school teachers were set up in Slovenia and in Italy.

Despite the fact that the current economic recession, coupled with political turbulence in certain areas, adds difficulty to our work, we have perceived sustained interest and a rising collective awareness of the urgency of taking action to reduce carbon emissions and re-design the energy profile of local communities. Ahead of schedule, some cities are already in the process of joining the Covenant of Mayors, and many others have confirmed their commitment to do so.

Among the many interesting experiences launched to date, the project Lead Partner in Italy organized a Training for the benefit of a group of local Mayors. The idea sprung from the realization that all too often public administrators are expected by the public to have a clear sense of the consequences of inefficient energy use in our society, without having been given the tools to gain such clarity. The Mayors of the Samoggia Valley were invited to interact with a pool of experts to train on fundamental, yet often ignored, aspects of energy use, tackling such questions as: what are the effects of emissions on public health? What is the current data on climate change, and what of its effects on the economy? What are the EU regulatory specifications on energy production?

Image: The Mayors of the Unione di Comuni Valle del Samoggia [Samoggia Valley Municipalities Group] after the ENESCOM training

The outcome of the training was a strong motivation for administrators to work towards the goals of the Covenant of Mayors. Participating Mayors felt they had gained a strong foothold on such topics as they may be required to elaborate on and discuss at various future junctures. A similar initiative was held in Prague, on that occasion the main insight gathered was that many municipalities have already implemented energy saving measures, but there is no public awareness of this amongst citizens.

Finally, technical meetings are underway to plan support actions in furthering the local administrations' understanding of the Covenant, to look into the development of SEAPs and, case-by-case, other possible local actions. This phase is undergoing an interesting development again in Italy, in the Samoggia Valley, where there is a plan to coordinate future actions through a common roadmap implemented on an inter-city level. This should ideally enhance the effectiveness of each action, insuring the deployment of common resources towards actions which an individual municipality could not sustain on its own.

To sum it all up, ENESCOM is at full throttle, about to step into the most operative phase of its work-plan. Expect more updates on our next newsletter.