THE ROLE OF REGIONS AND PROVINCES TO SUPPORT THE PARTICIPATION OF SMALL LOCAL AUTHORITIES IN THE COVENANT OF MAYORS

The need to curb greenhouse gas emissions as well as to reduce energy consumption requires coordinated efforts among actors at different levels of governance. It is widely recognised that climate action, either aiming at mitigation or at adaptation, is a multilevel governance challenge [Betsill M. and Bulkeley H., 2006; Ballesteros, 2013]. This paper aims at analysing the experience of the European Commission’s Covenant of Mayors (CoM), a voluntary initiative that involves local authorities which commit to develop and implement energy plans to contribute to climate mitigation policies. It searches the reasons for the remarkable success obtained by the movement among small-sized local authorities (below 10,000 inhabitants), which represent by far the majority of the CoM signatories especially in Italy and Spain. In these two countries in particular, local authorities have taken advantage of the support provided by decentralised authorities at a higher territorial level, such as regions and provinces, which have joined the movement as Covenant Territorial Coordinators (CTCs). The present paper analyses the role of CTCs in the CoM, focusing on three case studies from Italy, Spain and Belgium, and seeks to understand the reasons why this model has been particularly successful in those countries. We conclude that this model of multi-level governance can be replicated in countries having a similar administrative structure and we show on a map the existing CoM signatories which could benefit from the support of new CTCs.

MELICA Giulia;  GABRIELAITIENE Irena;  IANCU Andreea;  KONA Albana;  RIVAS CALVETE Silvia;  ZANCANELLA Paolo;  BERTOLDI Paolo; 

2016-04-13

International Association for Energy Economics

JRC92133

http://www.iaee.org/en/publications/proceedingssearch.aspx,    https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC92133,