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Signature Ceremony in Brussels - A boost for the Covenant of Mayors initiative
06.02.2009, 15:57
The Covenant of Mayors is an EU initiative that aims to improve energy efficiency significantly in the urban environment through a formal commitment by cities to reduce their CO2 emissions. It was launched by the European Commission in early 2008. Because regional and local authorities are the key players in the fight against climate change, the Committee of the Regions is a partner in the initiative and CoR President Luc Van den Brande has urged Members to sign the Covenant of Mayors.
By 19 January 2009, a total of 298 cities had formally signed up to the Covenant. Additionally, 102 cities all over Europe have expressed their willingness to join in the near future. Several British and Irish cities, as well as a number of local authorities, have signed up to the Covenant, or have expressed an interest in doing so: in the UK, the industrial heartlands of the Midlands and North East are leading the way, with signatures from Coventry, Nottingham, Birmingham, Durham, Northumberland, Middlesbrough, North Tyneside, Gateshead, Stockton Borough, Hartlepool, Sunderland, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside and Newcastle, while Dublin is Ireland's sole representative so far. London, Sheffield, Cork, Manchester, Belfast, Leeds, Milton Keynes and Leicester are also interested in signing. In the wider English-speaking world, the city of Christchurch in New Zealand has also signed up to the pact.
On 10 February 2009, all the signatories to the Covenant will attend a prestigious signature ceremony in the Hemicycle of the European Parliament in Brussels. Among the participants will be CoR President Luc Van den Brande, Alejo Vidal Quadras, Vice-President of the European Parliament, José-Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs, Philippe Maystadt, President of the European Investment Bank, the Mayors of Budapest (Dávor Demszky), Hamburg (Ole von Beust) and Madrid (Alberto Ruiz Gallardón) and other key players. The ceremony will be the central event of the 2009 EU Sustainable Energy Week. In parallel, a number of high-level debates and events will take place to establish the terms of participation of financial entities and the benchmarks for excellence in the Covenant.
More information is available on the CoR website.
Source: www.cor.europa.eu