Climate change mitigation and adaptation at local level

Cities and local authorities are key players in addressing climate change. Since 2008, the European Commission endorses and supports their efforts through the Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM) and notably through the provision of capacity building, technical assistance, sharing of best practices and peer learning opportunities. The initiative helps consolidate practices to monitor and report on energy consumption and GHG emissions as well as on risks and vulnerabilities at the local level, allowing decision makers to identify priority sectors, set emission reduction targets and adaptation goals and plan relevant measures. This report provides a scientific assessment of the CoM pillars of climate change mitigation and adaptation, based on data reported through the MyCovenant reporting platform. It describes the Covenant community, the plans submitted by signatories, examines actions and measures and gives an overview on the progress made. The key findings on mitigation show that the overall commitment to reducing GHG emissions by signatories is 25.7 % by 2020 and 44.5 % by 2030 compared to baseline emissions. On adaptation, while committed signatories and adaptation action plans are less numerous than mitigation ones, figures are constantly growing. For example, considering the reported adaptation actions by year (2010-2020), the numbers are increasing at an exponential rate, and the trend is projected to continue.

MELICA Giulia;  TREVILLE Aldo;  FRANCO DE LOS RIOS Camilo;  BALDI Marta;  MONFORTI-FERRARIO Fabio;  PALERMO Valentina;  ULPIANI Giulia;  ORTEGA HORTELANO Alejandro;  LO VULLO Eleonora;  MARINHO FERREIRA BARBOSA Paulo;  BERTOLDI Paolo; 

2022-05-18

Publications Office of the European Union

JRC128104

978-92-76-51978-2 (online),   

1831-9424 (online),   

EUR 31052 EN,    OP KJ-NA-31052-EN-N (online),   

https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC128104,   

10.2760/58412 (online),