Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives
The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched in 2008, supports the EU 20-20-20 strategy through a voluntary, bottom-up, municipality-led approach. With over 11,000 signatories, it has been key in implementing local energy policies via Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). This study analyzes energy con...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Taylor & Francis Group
2025-12-01
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| Series: | International Journal of Sustainable Energy |
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| Online Access: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14786451.2025.2527086 |
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| author | Serena Scelza Valentina Costa Ilaria Delponte Corrado Schenone |
| author_facet | Serena Scelza Valentina Costa Ilaria Delponte Corrado Schenone |
| author_sort | Serena Scelza |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched in 2008, supports the EU 20-20-20 strategy through a voluntary, bottom-up, municipality-led approach. With over 11,000 signatories, it has been key in implementing local energy policies via Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). This study analyzes energy consumption and GHG emissions reductions using CoM and IEA data, focusing on SEAP signatories, their plan submissions, and monitoring. It profiles participants and evaluates the impact of actions taken over a decade, prior to COVID-19 and recent global conflicts. Similar analysis showed that, although the wide participation and appreciable results, up-scaling, and transferability issues, as well as decreasing commitment of local administrations need to be pinpointed. EU leadership in this field so far has boosted indeed massive support to green transition, thus highlighting potential criticalities for smaller municipalities in the long-run, thus requiring stronger multi-level mechanisms to enhance global action effectiveness, especially beyond European boundaries. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-1f264c2b35eb4adba9df20d61ab68a77 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1478-6451 1478-646X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-12-01 |
| publisher | Taylor & Francis Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | International Journal of Sustainable Energy |
| spelling | doaj-art-1f264c2b35eb4adba9df20d61ab68a772025-08-20T03:29:44ZengTaylor & Francis GroupInternational Journal of Sustainable Energy1478-64511478-646X2025-12-0144110.1080/14786451.2025.2527086Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectivesSerena Scelza0Valentina Costa1Ilaria Delponte2Corrado Schenone3Department of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Civil, Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, ItalyDepartment of Mechanical, Energy, Management and Transport Engineering, University of Genoa, Genoa, ItalyThe Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched in 2008, supports the EU 20-20-20 strategy through a voluntary, bottom-up, municipality-led approach. With over 11,000 signatories, it has been key in implementing local energy policies via Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). This study analyzes energy consumption and GHG emissions reductions using CoM and IEA data, focusing on SEAP signatories, their plan submissions, and monitoring. It profiles participants and evaluates the impact of actions taken over a decade, prior to COVID-19 and recent global conflicts. Similar analysis showed that, although the wide participation and appreciable results, up-scaling, and transferability issues, as well as decreasing commitment of local administrations need to be pinpointed. EU leadership in this field so far has boosted indeed massive support to green transition, thus highlighting potential criticalities for smaller municipalities in the long-run, thus requiring stronger multi-level mechanisms to enhance global action effectiveness, especially beyond European boundaries.https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14786451.2025.2527086Covenant of Mayorssustainable energy planningmulti-level governancemitigationaction plansrenewable energy sources |
| spellingShingle | Serena Scelza Valentina Costa Ilaria Delponte Corrado Schenone Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives International Journal of Sustainable Energy Covenant of Mayors sustainable energy planning multi-level governance mitigation action plans renewable energy sources |
| title | Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| title_full | Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| title_fullStr | Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| title_full_unstemmed | Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| title_short | Shaping Europe’s sustainable energy policy: what the first decade of Covenant of Mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| title_sort | shaping europe s sustainable energy policy what the first decade of covenant of mayors tells us about future perspectives |
| topic | Covenant of Mayors sustainable energy planning multi-level governance mitigation action plans renewable energy sources |
| url | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/10.1080/14786451.2025.2527086 |
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