Supporting South Europe municipalities in the definition of Sustainable Local Heating and Cooling Plans

ongoing

Plan4COLD aims at supporting South European municipalities to cope with article 25º of the Energy Efficiency Directive (EED) transposition, dealing with the obligation for municipalities with more than 45.000 inhabitants to prepare local heating and cooling plans. Heating and cooling is responsible for a central part of the European Union’s (EU) energy demand, representing roughly half of the final energy consumption. Despite the biggest share being attributed to heating, cooling demand is increasing and is expected to increase in the next decades. Although cooling is still not a concern for North and Central European countries, reason for which very few EU projects cover the cooling topic, this is already a central issue in South European municipalities with expressive and raising cooling needs. Given this reality and the lack of resources and tools addressing the geographical context of South European heating and cooling planning, the Plan4COLD projects dedicates itself to supporting South European municipalities in this endeavour trough the development of customized resources, tools and materials, the active capacity building of its local and regional authorities and direct cooperation in the definition of 10 Sustainable Heating and Cooling Plans in lead cities in Italy, Greece and Portugal. These lead municipalities will act as case studies to serve as an example for other municipalities with similar geographical contexts, and even in others, to adopt the Plan4COLD resources and develop their local heating and cooling plans. The lessons learned in the process will back the definition of policy recommendations at the national, regional, and local level, that will support the establishment of the necessary frameworks for the successful transposition and implementation of the EED at the local level. The project therefore should be seen as a pilot setting-up resources and tools that shall continue to be available upon the project’s end for other municipalities.