Member states play a crucial role in providing funding, aligning legal frameworks, offering technical support, and ensuring access to relevant energy-related data. Yet, a recent track report by Energy Cities reveals a significant gap in readiness among EU Member States, with half of them lacking consideration for local heating and cooling planning, and more than half of them need new legislative frameworks and support systems to facilitate effective local heating and cooling planning. 

Because heating and cooling planning is inherently local due to diverse building types, geology, and heat resources, the involvement of citizens, local businesses, industries, and utilities at the grassroots level is key to the successful drafting and implementation of strategies. Hereby striking a balance between increasing the energy efficiency of the building stock and providing for renewable heating and cooling to fill in the remaining energy demand, requires a deeply integrated approach.

The main objective of the session is to promote different approaches and best practices to manage the heat transition as it is taking place at a moment when member states will have still one year to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive into national legislation. 

Best practice examples from the Covenant of Mayors, the European Energy Award and the Smart Cities Marketplace will promote different approaches and highlight different municipal perspectives: from the national level, the district level, the cities level and the power plant company.

This session will also be a milestone moment of the municipal heat planning campaign that the Covenant of Mayors will launch in 2024.