Cost-benefit analysis of the Voluntary Common European Union Certification Scheme (EVCS) implementation

This report assesses the potential benefits of the implementation of a European-wide voluntary certification scheme for non-residential buildings. Arising from Article 11 (9) of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive, the European Voluntary Certification Scheme or EVCS should present as a tool for organizations in the European market to use in their non-residential buildings. An analysis is made of the already existing green building voluntary schemes and an evaluation of the potential impact of the EVCS in terms of the increased costs and potential benefits both for building owners and the construction industry in terms of direct financial benefits, energy savings and the construction industry ripple effect. An analysis of the EU non-residential building stock was performed which lead to a buildings stock projection to 2020. This analysis has allowed for the projection of scenarios of the uptake of the EVCS allowing to estimate the potential impact of this tool in a EU-wide scope with different levels of the scheme uptake.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Covenant of Mayors: key criteria for adaptation to climate change in local plans

Global warming has been stated to be unequivocal and human influenced. The emissions and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased to a degree that they are producing disturbances to the world climatic system. Several climate change impacts have occurred, while others will occur or will be intensified in the future. Ocean acidification, sea-level rise and extreme weather events are some of the projected impacts which, in addition, might have negative effects on the environment, society and the economy. These effects need to be addressed in order to reduce vulnerability to climatic hazards by means of climate change adaptation planning. However, adaptation is a rather unknown topic for many cities that have been focusing more on climate change mitigation. The new Covenant of Mayors (CoM), launched in 2015, includes adaptation to climate change as one of the three main pillars of local action towards 2050: mitigation, adaptation and secure affordable and sustainable access to Energy. The covenant signatories share a common vision to 2050 based on: — Decarbonised territories, thus contributing to keeping average global warming well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, in line with the international climate agreement reached at COP 21 in Paris in December 2015. — More resilient territories, thus preparing for the unavoidable adverse impacts of climate change. — Universal access to secure, sustainable and affordable energy services for all, thus enhancing quality of life and improving energy security. The JRC, as technical and scientific support actor should assure the CoM soundness and provide guidance to support climate change adaptation planning and implementation to signatory cities. The aim of this report is to stablish the rationale behind the essential requirements for successful adaptation in the frame of the CoM, based on literature review and Joint Research Centre’s knowledge on climate change adaptation. The results of this report highlight the need for identification of current and future climatic hazards, an inventory of critical infrastructure, active stakeholder and citizen participation, maladaptation avoidance, and an estimation of adaptation action costs.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

Covenant of Mayors’ Annual Report

In this report we have analysed the submission of vulnerability risk assessments and adaptation actions of 40 European local authorities in the framework of the Covenant of Mayors. According to the information received from the signatories, Northern Europe and Central North Europe will face a multi-hazard scenario in the future, whereas Central Europe South and Southern Europe are already facing multi-hazard events. Hazardous events are expected to intensify in all regions. Climate hazards are likely to impact several municipal sectors, especially “land use planning”. Floods, extreme heat, landslides, extreme precipitation, and sea level rise are expected to influence land uses in most regions. Adaptation actions differ depending on the hazard tackled and the climate region considered. However, further “studies” is a common adaptation action proposed across all regions, pointing to the need for additional assessments. Not surprisingly, actions with a large infrastructure component like flood protection systems appear as the most costly action type. Lastly, a range of remaining gaps have been identified in the analysis, and need careful attention, such as improvement of stakeholder and citizen engagement, improvement of planning actions (which includes reducing the inconsistencies between the risk and vulnerability assessment and the actions proposed), and better address the risk of implementing maladaptation actions.JRC.E.1-Disaster Risk Managemen

The Covenant of Mayors: overall analysis and detailed evaluation of city Sustainable Energy Action Plans in the MENA Region

Launched in Europe in 2008, the Covenant of Mayors initiative came into being to support the efforts of local authorities in tackling climate change. Upon its wide endorsement in the region, the model was expanded to others, including the Southern Mediterranean. This report is a part of series of papers that analyse and highlight best practices in the Covenant Community and reviews Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs from 7 countries – Algeria, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories and Tunisia. The main findings are organised around the 10 principles of the Covenant of Mayors of the JRC Guidebook “How to develop a Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in South Mediterranean Cities”. The analysis shows a good compliance with the same and highlights the challenges linked to technical capacities at the local level, the insufficient financing and the sustainability of the action. The report concludes with a selection of best practices made from the planned actions and governance models of the selected SEAPs.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

EULF Energy Pilot - Final Report Phase 1

The European Union is giving more and more emphasis to its energy policies, reinforcing a political commitment to very high energy savings, with the aim to achieve a more competitive, secure and sustainable European energy system. Increased energy efficiency is vital to achieve the challenging goals set for the future and energy efficiency constitutes one of the five dimensions of the European Commission's Energy Union Package, designed to enhance energy security, sustainability and competitiveness. Within this policy context, this report focused on the 2010/31/EU Directive on the Energy Performance of Buildings and the 2012/27/EU Directive on Energy Efficiency, describing an initial set of pilot activities undertaken to enable and test the use of geospatial technologies in Digital Government processes and services related to energy efficiency EU policies, aiming to show, through a set of use cases, that accurate and interoperable location-based information can lower the barriers faced by government, companies and citizens involved in the energy efficiency policies’ lifecycle. The approach adopted is based on the INSPIRE Directive 2007/2/EC, establishing an infrastructure for spatial information in Europe to support Community environmental policies, and policies or activities which may have an impact on the environment, such as energy policies. The enabling role played by INSPIRE consists in the provision of common data models and common data access rules adopted by all EU MS and a roadmap to provide interoperable datasets of high relevance with energy efficiency. The report has identified a series of next steps to be undertaken to achieve the expected benefits deriving from the use of interoperable location-based information within the analysed energy policy instruments and to solve the issues encountered.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Methodologies for energy performance assessment based on location data: Proceedings of the workshop, Ispra, 12-14 September 2016

This expert workshop is one of a series covering the following topics: energy, buildings, location, assessment methods and data in relation to European Directives on Energy Efficiency (EED), Energy Performance of Buildings (EPBD), INSPIRE, establishing an Infrastructure for Spatial Information in Europe and the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative. These workshops are jointly organised by the EC DG JRC project on Energy and Location and the European Union Location Framework (EULF) action of the EC ISA Programme (Interoperability Solutions for Public Administration) . So far the JRC team has produced a feasibility study and started a dedicated pilot project on location data for buildings related energy efficiency policies . The first event organised was the workshop on “Spatial data for modelling building stock energy needs” held at JRC in Ispra 23-25 November 2015 . The aim of this second workshop was to discuss different approaches and methodologies to assess energy efficiency measures as well as energy usage and monitoring of energy flows at building, urban and regional level, representing an opportunity to share information, integrate stakeholders’ views and set the ground for mutual collaboration. Eleven invited leading organisations and EU projects were invited to take part in this workshop sending experts to present their projects and discuss how to assess synergies and how to arrive to a coherent approach for assessment of energy use in the built environment. Another twelve people from JRC, experts on energy efficiency, energy performance, geospatial data modelling and processing participated to the workshop. From the discussions, it has emerged that a holistic approach would give more evidence of the needs for measures to reduce energy consumption. This is a bit in contrast to what the EU policy requests by the present energy related Directives. More and more it becomes evident that the target should be reducing emissions and not necessarily reducing energy consumption. Integration of energy technologies are playing an important role at a higher level than the building only (i.e. at the EPBD–level). The energy market (gas and electricity) is able to provide an enormous buffer in storing energy virtually and the buildings itself should be much better balanced in energy terms to the thermal needs, e.g. heating and cooling. At the same time the energy network requires buildings for balancing. INSPIRE could be very relevant for energy assessment in the built environment and for this reason the Energy Pilot initiated under the “Energy and Location” and “European Union Location Framework” projects will be continued over the next years. Main objectives of the pilot project will be to continue to work on Use Cases already outlined, to be further elaborated based on the information gathered at the workshop. The JRC will seek to develop partnerships to implement the defined use cases with the selected partners.JRC.B.6-Digital Econom

Covenant of Mayors: Monitoring Indicators

Launched in 2008 by the European Commission, the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) is the mainstream European movement involving cities and towns in the development and implementation of local sustainable energy and climate policies. Covenant of Mayors' signatories can benefit from support at different levels: from European institutions to national and regional governments and to fellow signatories which share best practises through the CoM platform. Featured by multilevel governance models and bottom up actions, the CoM platform paves the way for local and regional governments to contribute to EU's climate and energy objectives. By signing up to the Covenant of Mayors, local authorities commit to submit: I. action plan: based on the inventory of energy consumptions/production and greenhouse gas emissions in the local authority's territory, identifies actions to be implemented for reaching the CO2 reduction target. II. monitoring reports: including status of the implementation of actions and - at least every fourth year - a monitoring inventory which allows to measure progress toward the targets set in the action plan1. As of September 2015, almost six thousand local authorities have signed the CoM, for a total of ca. 208 million inhabitants in the whole initiative. More than 4 500 local authorities have submitted an action plan (Sustainable Energy Action Plan) for a total of ca. 166 million. Out of these, 122 signatories, representing 3% of the signatories with an action plan, have submitted a monitoring report including inventories for a total ca. 11 million inhabitants. Monitoring inventories enable to track the evolution of GHG emissions in local authorities territories as well as changes in energy consumptions patterns, and to compare estimated impacts of the actions against actual results. This report illustrates main statistical indicators based on data provided by signatories in the monitoring reports submitted as of September 2015.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc

The Covenant of Mayors in Figures and Performance Indicators: 6-Year Assessment

The main purpose of this scientific report is to provide an assessment of the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) Initiative 6 years after it has been initiated by the European Commission. By implementing the CoM Initiative, the European Commission has given visibility to the role of local authorities and their relevant contribution to EU2020 Climate and Energy targets. This is the second assessment report in a series of CoM assessment reports published by JRC. As of mid-May 2014 5,296 local authorities signed the Covenant of Mayors (CoM), for a total of ca. 160 million inhabitants in the EU-28, and ca. 186 million inhabitants in the whole initiative. Based on the data collected from Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) submitted by CoM Signatories as of mid-May 2014, a statistical methodology has been developed to select a CoM data set for evaluating the real impact of the CoM initiative. The report provides main statistics of the data set in terms of GHG emission and estimated reductions, Final energy consumptions and estimated energy savings and clean energy production in the local authorities. Ultimately, the report aims to emphasize the feature of SEAPs as a flexible common platform for achieving EU Climate and Energy targets with a bottom-up approach.JRC.F.7-Renewables and Energy Efficienc

Covenant of Mayors in Figures: 8-year Assessment

The European Commission’s initiative Covenant of Mayors (CoM), one of the world’s largest urban climate and energy initiatives, involving more than seven thousand local and regional authorities, proves that climate change has moved to the forefront of urban priorities. Its integrated approach is in line with a number of EU priorities not only concerning mitigation and adaptation but also in terms of embracing a robust transparency framework for the implementation of the Paris agreement. The Covenant of Mayors in figures 8-year assessment report, based on the data collected in the CoM platform as of September 2016, aims at providing an overall picture of the achievement and projections made by the signatories in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and the related energy consumptions. Developing a sustainable energy and climate action plan that requires the establishment of a baseline emission inventory, target setting and the adoption of policy measures is already a tangible achievement for cities. This is the first step towards an effective, transparent system for tracking progress and concrete results. Ultimately, the report emphasis that strong urban energy policies and increased involvement of citizens is of vital importance in the potential of urban mitigation of global climate change.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable