Covenant of Mayors in Figures - 5-Year Assessment

Abstract

After almost 5 years of activity, preliminary results of the projects may be highlighted. Up to mid-March 2013, 4654 municipalities signed the Covenant, for a total of 156.75 million inhabitants in EU27 (corresponding to more than 42% of the EU27 urban population) and a total of 182.30 million inhabitants in the whole project (corresponding to 33% of the urban population of the relative countries). Furthermore 24 municipalities with more than 1,000,000 of inhabitants signed the Covenant.Among these signatories, 2508 already submitted a Sustainable Energy Action Plan and a corresponding Baseline Emission Inventory, resulting in 1099 accepted Action Plans, covering 45,311,965 inhabitants. Although the minimum commitment was to reduce 20% of the current emissions, 699 signatories committed to reduce more than threshold, resulting in an estimated emission reduction in 2020 of 97,197 KtCO2-eq (which a calculation uncertainties of ± 1,796 KtCO2-eq due to the different approaches that signatories used to report their emission inventories). The CoM appeared very popular in the southern European countries. As such the total CoM emissions of the signatories in Italy and Spain are approaching the national total of CoM sectors for Italy according to EDGAR estimates. In Northern European countries the CoM could gain some more popularity. Even though in some countries, such as Italy and Spain the publicity for the CoM paid off and many signatories were registered, real GHG reductions are only starting. Many effort and engagement will be needed by the mayors to realize the projected reductions. The implementation of several GHG reduction measures takes time, depending on the measure. However, with the extension of the CoM eastwards (into the Newly Independent States) and southwards (into the North-African countries around the Mediterranean sea) the EU-27 should be a representative example.