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Towards an integrated community energy policy to improve the quality of citizens' lives |
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| CONCERTO Plus Policy experts are currently working to improve exchange and communication on three levels: |
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Beyond "CONCERTO Communities"
Our ambition: to encourage a growing number of local communities to become sustainable and improve stakeholder awareness within the European Union, replicating the CONCERTO successful policies and best practices. CONCERTO Plus is currently analysing the preliminary results of the activities carried out by the 27 CONCERTO I communities. In 2008, on the basis of lessons learned, policy experts will prepare a checklist with key criteria which may be necessary for a specific policy or measure to be successful. “What difference does CONCERTO make?” CONCERTO added value will be identified for medium and long term. |
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demonstration (policy recommendation/position papers at national and European level or other kind of actions) and other advice upon request. CONCERTO Plus policy experts are currently working with monitoring and socio-economic experts to draft a common framework for sustainability assessment.
The Regional on-site visits and the launch of National Communication platforms have been two successful instruments proposed this year to CONCERTO communities where they could benchmark and debate projects implementation phase and plan common future actions. |
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Within "CONCERTO Communities"
Our ambition: to support CONCERTO communities using a bottom up approach to identify different barriers (from a financial, technical, legislative/regulatory point of view, or due to low acceptance at community/district level) and suggest to local policy makers alternative tools and actions to overcome them to be successful in their |
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From the EU to local communities and back
Our ambition: to create a “CONCERTO energy policy mirror group” based on the model of European Technology platforms. Within this Mirror Group, barriers and the impact that the dynamic evolution of the European legal framework will be analysed and solutions will be discussed. CONCERTO Plus policy experts will facilitate a direct and continuous dialogue. |
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Spotlight on the Concerto I Communities |
Since the launch of the CONCERTO initiative in 2005, its participating communities and projects are spearheading the drive towards sustainable cities. CONCERTO I communities are currently managing the implementation phase. Carrying out their complex activities with so many stakeholders is certainly not an easy task; this requires overcoming existing barriers at different levels. In the following, two communities show some highlights of their activities. Their approach might offer interesting insight and provide lessons for policy also for other communities.
The full contributions from Geneva and Torino are available at the following web address: www.concertoplus.eu. |
| Energy policy in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland – by Eric Lumis1 |
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The Geneva Cantonal Energy Service (ScanE) is one of six partners in the Geneva CONCERTO community (TetraEner project). Aside from ScanE’s local coordination role in the project, the energy service’s involvement was instrumental in the launch and development of the community project, also known as "Genève-Lac-Nations" (GLN). It is Geneva’s energy policies that contributed to the success of the project.
ScanE’s mission is to develop energy policies that optimise energy consumption and that encourage the use and production of renewable energy as a substitute for nuclear and fossil fuel energies. These activities are carried out within the framework of the Geneva’s cantonal constitution and energy law.
Geneva’s energy policies are driven by two policy documents, the General Energy Concept (CGE) and the Energy Action Plan (PDE). The CGE is a strategic paper, updated every four years, that establishes energy policy priorities based on the |
evolution of energy resources and the national and international energy context. The PDE, on the other hand, is an operational document that defines specific actions to achieve the targets of the CGE.
The long term vision in the CGE is a 2000-WATT society without nuclear energy. An approach based on the fact that the current world average energy consumption is 2000W/person. In a sustainable world, as developing countries increase their energy use, developed countries have an obligation to reduce their consumption accordingly (Europe is currently at 3 times, and Geneva at twice, the world average). With this long-term vision in mind, the CGE establishes specific three objectives for the timeframe 2005-2010 and the PDE targets five main areas.
The PDE also defines the list of actions to be undertaken. The first priority is to reduce energy demand by using high energy performance standards. On the supply side, the priority is to |
increase supply efficiency by relying on efficient systems and appropriate regulations. As to the energy source, a priority is given to local renewable energies (when appropriate) followed by the use of certified energies for the remaining demand.
To verify the effectiveness of the actions defined in the PDE, each action is complemented by a quality action plan. These are reviewed regularly to assess the effectiveness of the action and to modify a specific action if necessary, to achieve the desired objective.
GLN, Geneva’s Concerto community, is just one project that resulted from Geneva’s energy policies and that will help Geneva reach its ambitious long term goals.
For further information see www.geneve.ch/scane
or contact: Mr. Olivier Ouzilou - Director of the Geneva Cantonal Energy Service – olivier.ouzilou@etat.ge.ch
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1-Eric Lumis, ScanE, Switzerland, Coordinator of the Swiss Regional project in Geneva “TetraEner” webpage: http://www.tetraener.com/. The full version of the article is available on CONCERTO webpage in the policy session: www.concertoplus.eu |
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