Repor t of ac t iv i t ies

- 2018 -

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3 D s f o r

a n e w

s o c i e t yEnergy Ci t ies’ pol i t ical v ision of the energy future comes in a 3D shape: democratic , devolved and divested. To im-plement the necessar y pol icy solu t ions , i t takes del ibe -rate action from policy -makers at al l levels of government as well as determination and creativ i t y from civ i l society.

Here are the three components that are at the core of our transition agenda.

E n e r g y C i t i e s i s t h e E u r o p e a n

A s s o c i at i o n o f l o c a l

a u t h o r i t i e s i n e n e r g y

t r a n s i t i o n .

Main object ives― To strengthen cities role and skills in the f ield of sus-tainable energy.

― To represent cities inte -rests and inf luence the poli -cies and proposals made by European Union institutions in the f ields of energy, environ-mental protection and urban policy.

― To develop and promote cities initiatives through ex-change of experiences, the transfer of know-how and the implementation of joint projects.

T H AT IS W H AT E N E R GY C I T I E S IS WO R K I N G FO R!

From 2017 to 2020, Energy Cities is under the Presiden-cy of the City of Heidelberg (DE) with a Board of Directors from 11 European cities.The association, created in 1990, represents more than 1,000 towns and cities in 30 coun-tries. Energy Cities’ premises are located in Brussels (BE) and Besançon (FR).

DEMOCRACY

D I V EST

D EVO LUT I O N

Rec la im power

Move the money

Think loca l f i rst

4 5

E n e r g y C i t i e s ’

d e m a n d s

t o t h e n e x t

E U l e a d e r s

Mayors’ boldness is a highlight of 2018, whether at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco, or at the Covenant of Mayors Europe ceremony, in official reports and mainstream me-dia: the acknowledgment of local actions for the transition has never been so prominent. However, it mirrors a rising emergency for radically changing our trajectories, as said in the IPCC report or the “Emissions gap report” of the UN Environment Programme . In our internal discussions, Energy Cities’ members have made it clear that the transformation of our urban fabrics and of our consumption patterns has started, but stil l needs to accelerate. Our “Claiming a crisis” proposals call for mainstreaming the dras-tic reduction of our energy and resource needs, as well as the fostering of prosperous, resil ient local economies, into the EU policies for the next decade. It is of utmost urgency, as we are witnessing an uprising of citizens across Europe, fuelled by social injustices and fear of migration.

Although the adoption of the “Clean energy for all” legislative pac-kage has brought a more positive framework for a decentralised and democratised energy system, EU and national leaders have sti l l not shown us any adequate answer to the change needed. Nice words and promises of putting the “citizen at the centre of the energy system” sti l l have to be translated into concrete budgetary and fiscal shif ts.

Dear leaders: Be bold!

F O R E WO R D

Prof. Dr. Eckart Würzner Mayor of Heidelberg President of Energy Cities

Claire Roumet Director of Energy Cities

C l a i m i n g a c r i s i sH o w a s h a r e d e n e r g y t r a n s i t i o n c a n t r a n s f o r m E u r o p e ’ s e n e r g y l a n d s c a p e a n d a l s o ta c k l e t h e r o o t c a u s e s o f s t r i f e i n E u r o p e t o day

In a manifesto, wri t ten on behalf of our thousands of member cities across Europe, we’ve laid out a series of ‘quick wins’ and disruptive policy changes the next EU leaders could implement to jumpstart a truly shared energy transition.

The manifesto calls on EU leaders to challenge Brussels’ business as usual by suppor ting a bottom-up energy system powered by citizens, engaging with communities, linking urban and rural areas and constructing the sustainable infrastructure we need for a prosperous, sustainable Europe.

6 7

SUMMARY

08chapter 1

F r a m i n g t h e p o l i c i e s

for a local ly based energy t ransi t ion

10

New ambition for the energy transition

in Europe

12

New actors for the energy market

16

New Means for the energy transition:

towards an EU budget in line with the Paris

Agreement

18

New governance models for a shared responsibility?

16chapter 2

W H AT W E T E S T E D

18chapter 3

Where to f ind

I N S P I R AT I O NA N D T O O L S

20chapter 4

H O W W E A R E O R G A N I S E D

22chapter 5

W H AT ’ S N E X T ?

Main milestones of the year to come

& how you can get involved

• What have we achieved by inf luencing decision-makers?• What have we tested, where is the latest exciting innovation?• Where can you f ind tools and inspiration?• How we do things: holacracy, who we are.• Internal l ife of the organisation: who are our new members,

our board members, a snapshot of our f inancial situation.• What’s next? Main milestones of the year to come

and how you can get involved.

• Metrics of web visits, number of pages we read, retweets, number of beers with decision-makers and other measurements of our activities, because too many f igures ki l l the debate.

• All the projects we are in; al l the great places we have been invited to present the energy transition; al l great par tners we are working with; we can only give you a snapshot of the main highlights.

• The full description of our super talented team; you can f ind this on our website.

• Brief ings on major policy developments and trends: these are provided in our regular newsletter, which can also be found on our website.

WHAT YOU CAN F I N Di n th is repor t?

WHAT YOU W I L L N OT F I N D

i n th is repor t?

8 9

chapter 1

FRAMING

THE POL IC IESfor a local ly based Energy transit ion

W H YC i t i e s a r e t h e h e a r t o f t h e e n e r g y t r a n s i t i o n . They are already driving societal change through decentralised, renewable power production and by reducing the energy needs of

our society, but a genuine power shift towards local communities is long overdue. It is they who

will ultimately deliver a fossil fuel-free energy system.

H OWC i t i e s n e e d t o p l ay t h e i r f u l l r o l e .

Energy Cities works with cities to radically transform legal and political frameworks, so cities are reco -

gnized for what they truly are: drivers of the energy transition. We advocate and work towards a complete reform of EU legisla-tion that is currently impeding cities in meeting their ambitious targets.

C i t i e s A R E w h e r e i t h a p p e n s . Projects that challenge the way we produce anddistribute en-ergy, and engage both municipali ties and communities are

one of our core activities. We provide cities with in-depth exchange and implementation opportu-

nities that allow them to lead by example. We also create spaces for cities to connect and share experiences, among themselves and with various stakeholders.

C i t i e s i n s p i r e . Our network of committed cities and their local communities

have a lot to share. We spread stories of change to trigger action across Europe. Showing what is possible through

their combined stories of success, challenges and exper tise can inspire others in their journey.

W H Y W E D O W H AT W E D O

A DVO C ACY

I N S PI R AT I O N

I M P L E M E N TAT I O N & E XC H A N G E

1 0 1 1

2 0 5 0 E U L o n g -t e r m s t r at e g y

As a legacy for the next legislative period, the EU Commis-sion wanted to raise the ambition of the EU by proposing a bold strategy for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. They translated the Paris Agreement into 8 possible scenarios, all requiring major decisions on which pathway to take.

O U R A S S E S S M E N T O F T H E C O M M I S S I O N ’ S 2 0 5 0 E U L O N G -T E R M S T R A T E G Y

The strategy clearly presents an ambitious agenda for so -c ieta l t ransformation , wi th a key role for cit ies and ci -t izens , but is sti l l too much focused on technology, in -novation and e lectr ic i ty as main solutions to make the EU cl imate -neutral by 2050.

N e w a m b i t i o n

f o r t h e e n e r g y

t r a n s i t i o n

i n E u r o p e

W h a t we h ave d o n e

F e b r u a r y― The Board of Energy Ci -ties met with Sami Andoura, adviser of Commission Pre -sident Juncker on the energy transition, to discuss the role of cities in the transition.

S e p t e m b e r― Our Franco-German city twinning conference in Mon-treuil discussed ci ty transi -t ion masterplans and com-pared the energy transitions of France and Germany ; our members also met with the German S tate secretar y of Cl imate, Jochen F lasbar th , and the Chairman of ADEME, Bruno Léchevin.

O c t o b e r― Release of our publication “Local energy and c l imate roadmaps: 5 city visions for 2050”, which analyses major t rends in urban long - term strategies; the study was pre-sented at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francis-co to Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete.

― The Covenant of Mayors Europe board met with Com-m i s s i o n e r s M i g u e l A r i a s Cañete and Maroš Šefčovič to discuss the board’s proposals for the 2050 EU long -term strategy. Energy Cities’ board met with the Director-General of the EU Commission’s di -rectorate-general for climate action, Mauro Petriccione.

N o v e m b e r― The Commission publi -shed i ts strategy for a cl i -mate-neutral Europe by 2050.

D e c e m b e r― At the Global Covenant of Mayors event at COP24 in Katowice, our representative from member city Paris pre -sented our react ion to the Commission’s 2050 EU long-term strategy.

1 2 1 3

R e n e wa b l e E n e r g y D i r e c t i v e

The revised Renewable Energy Directive contains a num-ber of good proposals, such as the definition of ambitious tar-gets for the transport and heating & cooling sector. Thanks to the Directive, the share of renewables in heating and cooling systems will be increased by 1.3% every year. Furthermore, a stable legal base was defined for renewable energy communi-ties, which will fur ther suppor t them in their development in the energy market.

J a n u a r y― In the framework of our project Renewables Networ-king Platform (RNP), we pu-bl ished “Green c i t y v ibes”, which provides a snapshot of cities’ needs for a bold EU re-newables framework.

A l L y e a r l o n g― National debates on re -newable energy were orga-nised in 5 countries through the RNP project : the Nether-lands, Czechia, France, Spain and Poland.

A p r i l― We contributed to the En-ergy Atlas; a large collective publication to show cities’ po-tential for renewable energy.

F e b r u a r y― Energy Cities’ Board met with the Director on renewable energy in the Commission’s energy directorate - general , Mechthild Wörsdörfer, to ex-press our support on the Com-mission’s proposal for the Re-newable Energy Directive.

D e c e m b e r― We prepared a guidebook for cities with concrete exa-mples of how cities can sup-por t energy democracy and community energy projects.

N e w act o r s

f o r t h e e n e r g y

m a r k e tO V E R A L L A S S E S S M E N T O F T H E R E N E W A B L E E N E R G Y D I R E C T I V E

The local d imension of the fu tu re deve lopment of re -newable energy has a bright future thanks to the favou -rable legal basis in the Di -rective. We can already wit-ness a rise in the number of community renewable energy projects al l over Europe.

W h a t we h ave d o n e

1 4 1 5

M a r k e t d e s i g nThese EU proposals are setting new rules of the game in the

electricity market, thanks to the inclusion of a clear definition for citizen energy communities and beneficial rules adapted to the size of energy projects.

O V E R A L L A S S E S S M E N T O F T H E M A R K E T D E S I G N F I L E

New actors are recognised , however, i t is not ce r ta in that they wil l be able to grow and prosper. The ru les are sti l l ta i lored to big p layers a nd not fo r the s mal le r ones that seek to become medium-sized. Never theless, considering the legal basis for col lective self- consump-tion and for prosumers , it is a new positive framework.

A u g u s t― We adopted a joint posi -tion on the market design f ile with RESCoop.eu, the Euro -pean federation of renewable energy cooperatives, to pro -pose concrete amendments to the proposal of the EU Parliament.

O c t o b e r― EU Parliament event held by the Small is Beautiful cam-paign to influence the vote on the Market Design File in the Parliament.

― The Board of Energy Ci -t ies met with the president of EDSO for Smart Grids, the association of European Dis-tribution System Operators.

A p r i l― Energy ci t ies joined the Small is Beautiful campaign, steered by the solar industry but gathering all players wan-ting a real level playing f ield for new actors on the energy market.

― Our publicat ion “Block- chain and energy transition: what chal lenges for ci t ies” explains all the potential of using blockchain technology for local authorities in the en-ergy f ield.

J u l y― Workshop with our Por-tuguese members to learn from French and German exa-mples on the obligations of gr id network operators and their par tnership with cities ; these exchanges will continue through our MPower project.

W h a t we h ave d o n e

1 6 1 7

t o wa r d s a n E U b u d g e t i n l i n e w i t h t h e Pa r i s A g r e e m e n t

The EU budget for the period 2021-2027 is a good example of new policy which we star ted to work on before 2018, but which will not be decided upon before the end of 2019. This year, we concentrated our activities in the positioning and in holding joint events with other stakeholders.

The future EU budget proposals of the Commission ex-cluded for the first time investment into fossil fuels in Struc-tural Funds, but the EU Parliament and Member States want to abolish this exclusion. On a positive note, 25% of the EU bud-get will now be dedicated to climate and energy action, thereby channelling more funds into the local energy transition.

J a n u a r y― Analysis of our members’ needs and the results achie -ved in the current budgetary period 2014-2020, and what needs to change in the next period.

― Publication of a joint po-sition with CEE Bankwatch, an NGO specialised in assessing EU public spending.

A u t u m n― Joint letter with 100 orga-nisations to Ministers (indus-tr ies , c i t y networks, NGOs, trade unions), asking for an ambit ious cl imate & energy f ramework in the nex t EU budget.

A p r i l― Joint let ter with 20 or-g a n i s a t i o n s ( i n d u s t r i e s , c i t y networks, NGOs, trade unions) ask ing for a mini -mum of 35% earmarking for climate-related investment in research & innovation in the future EU budget.

T h r o u g h o u t t h e y e a r― For this strand of activi-ties, our leadership position in the projects INNOVATE, and in some key investment projects such as Heatnet , Hotmaps, Mednice, Smar ter together and Publenef were critical in identifying exactly the funding needs of cities, and the sup-port models that work and the ones that do not work.

N e w M e a n s

f o r t h e e n e r g y

t r a n s i t i o n :

W h a t we h ave d o n e

O V E R A L L A S S E S S M E N T

Too early to say! Let ’s see af-ter the European elections in May 2019.

1 8 1 9

The translation of the Paris Agreement into EU le-gislation took place in the form of the Energy Union and Climate Governance Regulation, which was adopted in June 2018. Most of the work we have done on this file was done years before, as we had a first contribu-tion based on concrete examples of our members two years in advance of the process. This really helped to illustrate the potential of opening the decision-making process to a co-chaired policy design fostered on a shared responsibility.

O V E R A L L A S S E S S M E N T O F T H E E N E R G Y U N I O N A N D C L I M A T E G O V E R N A N C E R E G U L A T I O N

Membe r s tates sha l l p ro -pose nat iona l e ne rgy and cl imate plans and are invited to d iscuss these wi th in a mul t i - s takeholde r d ia logue platform that includes local authorities and NGOs.

The final wording of the regu-lation is not strong enough, but sti l l i t is a concrete step forward , which cal ls on na -t ional governments across Europe to open up the box of planning energy and cl imate pol icies to local actors and the civi l society.

S u m m e r― Our LIFE Living streets publication drew recommen-dations and guided municipali-ties to implement the effective participation of citizens in the use of public space.

― Our projects SHAPE, MO-LOC, POTES, the Mobilisation club and LIFE PlanUp are all key projects inspiring and nou-rishing our proposals for new governance models at local level. Their findings are key to design inclusive and effective multi-level dialogue processes.

M a r c h & A p r i l― We published a joint let-ter with all city networks and organised a European Par-liament debate with MEPs to push forward the legal basis for a multi - level energy and climate dialogue in every EU Member State (Ar ticle 10a in the Regulation).

W h a t we h ave d o n e

N e w

g ov e r n a n c e

m o d e l s f o r

a s h a r e d

r e s p o n s i b i l i t y ?

2 0 2 1

chapter 2

WHAT WE

TESTED

S o m e h i g h l i g h t s o f t h e y e a r f r o m t h e p r o j e c t s a n d i n i t i at i v e s

w e a r e i n v o lv e d i n .

O ne of ou r p r io r i t i es was to deepen the exchange between cities and offer them direct transfer of knowledge and training oppor tunit ies. We organised international exchanges between U.S. and European cities in our Energy Allies project, and expanded our Franco-German twinning

programme TANDEM into a joint Energy Transition Week in January 2019. Moreover, our smart city project Smar-ter Together enabled Lyon, V ienna , Munich and the i r fol lower ci t ies to test car-b o n - n e u t r a l te c h n o l o g i e s and new local governance mode ls a t ne ighbourhood

scale, while our project Pros-pect pioneered peer-to -peer learning programmes on in -novative financing schemes. Our MPower project launched a city - to -city conversations and peer learning on local en-ergy ownership, while our IN-NOVATE and ACE retrofit ting projects aimed at developing and transferring successful tools and financing schemes fostering energy renovation of residential buildings.

Our second priority was to develop the capacity of inst i tut ions and organisa-tions at national level , such as our collective members - national associations of ci -ties in energy transition – or par tners in order to better support cities in d i f fe re nt loc a l contex t s . T h rough our RNP project , we organised nat ional de ba tes in S pa in , the Netherlands, Po-land , C zechia and France to suppor t c i t ies and regions on their road towards 100% renewables. Through our BE ACON pro -ject, we promoted multi - level governance and faci l i tated exchanges between national networks and governments as well as municipalities and

schools, so they could imple -ment bet ter energy and cli -mate policies and actions.

Our L IF E P lanU p p ro -jec t a lso aimed to foster more inclusive and effective mul t i - leve l governance by pushing for the involvement of local authorities and civil socie t y organisat ions into national energy and climate planning policies.

F inally, the highlight of our strategy was to maintain and grow a vibrant Covenant of Mayors community, heard by EU leaders and expan -ding globally. This was done through a strong partnership with the European Commis-

sion and with Euro -pean city networks, to ensure that the Covenant is not only a mobil isation tool fo r m u n i c i p a l i t i e s and a way to show the power of local actions on a global

Cl imate scene; but that i t also becomes a real political force , p roposing concre te actions to be taken at all go-vernance levels. And most impor tantly, that the Cove -nant can become a new Eu-ropean project, a story to be shared by all citizens.

A y e a r p l a c e d u n d e r

t h e s i g n o f “ P 2 P ” .

2 2 2 3

chapter 3

where to f ind

INSP IRATION

& TOOLS

Our capacity to tell the story of an energy tran-

si t ion that should be based on cities

and ci t izens , is important to in-f l u e n c e p o l i -c ies and push for a posi t ive

f ramework fo r the local ener -

gy transition. For that , we have com-

plete ly redesign our website. Its new structure

makes it the perfect platform to spread our members’ best innovations, to feature the ins-p i r i n g m i n d s of our network a n d c o n n e c -t i n g t h e m with other rich content , su c h as our regular policy analysis as well as our guidebooks and s t u d i e s t h a t q u e s t i o n a n d showcase new practices, much of it tested in the framework of EU -fun-ded projects.

Giv ing c i t ies the tools to advocate, to convince lo -

cal stakeholders, to show to their national leaders ins -pirational policies that are really helping communities to take par t in the energy transition, is one of our core missions. For that, all cities that are part of the Energy Ci-ties community are the best source for knowledge, and projects are cr i t ical to ex-tract and analyse how cities are concretely implementing, step by step, the transition.

Finally, to help members in their daily de-cisions, we pro-vide a precise analysis of the c h a n g i n g E u -ropean legisla -tive landscape, give the pano -rama of the on-going debates, dec ipher f inal compromise on new laws and out l igning the exact dates of k e y d e v e l o p -ments and deci-

sions. Providing this access to accurate information is both a way to keep track and to mobil ise members when specific lobbying is required to get better legislation.

E n e r g y C i t i e s a r e s e t t i n g n e w t r e n d s . O u r t o o l s

a n d c h a n n e l s a g g r e g at e a l l

t h e s e l o c a l i n i t i at i v e s

i n t o a s t r o n g a n d j o i n t n a r r at i v e .

2 4 2 5

W H O ?Our Board

From April 2017 to April 2020, Energy Cities is under the Presidency of the City of Heidelberg (DE) with a Board of Directors fom 11 Euro -pean ci t ies: Bornova ( TR), Cork County (IE), Delft (NL), Heidelberg (DE), Liège (BE), Milton Keynes (GB), Modena (IT), Paris (FR), Riga (LV), Tr-nava (SK) and Växjö (SE).

You are not familiar with Holacracy?

This is a radical ly new mode of or-ganisation and governance based on collective intell igence. The power is d ist r ibuted between autonomous but closely cooperating teams (‘cir-cles’ ). There is not one big boss but each of us is a leader in our own r ight. Responsib i l i t ies are a lways hand led at the appropr iate leve l (subsid iar i ty !): “Bot tom-up” is not only a buzz word for us.

Regular operational meetings allow us to focus on nex t- act ions , not endless analysis. Governance mee-t ings deal wi th recurr ing issues. Major decisions are collectively de-cided by the leading team composed by Circle’s leaders.

We try to apply this shared gover-nance also in al l our projects and with al l our par tners, because it is central to the way we do things. Fur-thermore, we align our practice with the recommendations we provide, as we always test first what we propose.

The TeamWith offices in Bruxelles,

B e l g i u m a n d B e s a n ç o n , France, Energy Cities’ team is made up of 24 creative out-of-the -box thinkers from 11 countries who are pushing for positive changes in our member cities.

Each s taf f member is unique and so is the way we have organised the ent i re team. Indeed, since 2010 we are running the Energy Cities’ Secretar iat using the “ho -lacratic” method.

O u r f i n a n c i a l s i t u at i o n

In 2018, our annual budget for our core activities reached around EUR 2 million, as in pre-vious years. More than 60% of our budget comes from the European Union, either through project funding or through service contracts. As a membership organisation, the annual fees we receive from our members are very im-portant to guarantee our inde-pendence and our capacity to answer cities’ needs: they re-present almost 20% of our in-come. The remaining 20% are constituted mainly by grants from national governments, or services delivered to cities and third parties.

chapter 4

HOW WE ARE

ORGANISED

2 6 2 7

m a i n m i l e st o n e s o f t h e y e a r 2 0 1 9 a n d h ow y o u ca n g e t i n v o lv e d .

chapter 5

WHAT ’S

NEXT?

M A Y13 T H-17 T H

European Green week

21S T-2 3 R DICCA (International

Conference on Climate action) and Energy Cities annual conference in Heidelberg, Germany , releasing the Global status repor t of local energy in par tnership with REN21

2 2 N D-26T HEuropean Elections

J u n e― EUSEW 2019

― Launch of the Report on good practices in climate and energy multi - level governance

J u l y― First session of the new European Parliament

O c t o b e r― 3rd MEDNICE Congress in Brussels at Open Days

N o v e m b e r― New EU Commission takes over

― Clean Air Forum in Bratislava, Slovakia

J a n u a r y2 2 N D-25 T H

First Franco-German

week for energy transition: decentralised debates in more than 40 cities

― Publication of our “guidebook for cities to promote community energy”

2 2 N D-24 T HEuropean Energy

Transition Conference, Dunkerque (3000 par ticipants)

F E B R U A R Y

7 T HMeeting of Energy Cities Board, seminar

presenting the handbook “Divesting our public f inance”, Paris

― ENC website release

28 T HWorkshop on remunicipalisation

of the local energy supply, Ettlingen, Germany

M A R S

7 T H-8 T HCities and the energy agenda, by

the Spanish “cities of change”, Barcelona

14 T H-15 T HBiennale of the transition cities,

Grenoble

Photographs : © Nathalie Nizet te | Christophe Simonato | European Union 2018Graphic design : Champ libre, www.studiochamplibre.com

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