Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ENERGee Watch (Peer to peer learning in regional and local authorities to timely and accurately define, monitor and verify their sustainable actions)
Reporting period: 2022-03-01 to 2023-08-31
From planning to financing and successful implementation of sustainable energy solutions, public authorities have varying levels of knowledge, skills, and capacity, as well as several needs. In 2017, an extensive study conducted by the European Covenant of Mayors Office showed that local and regional authorities need support on collecting, monitoring and verifying data for their climate and energy plans. Policies for monitoring and verification are often formed on a national level, and cities oftentimes do not have the capacity for setting up proper MRV practices and do not properly monitor the impact of their policies and implemented actions.
ENERGee Watch launched a peer-to-peer learning programme to enable regional and local authorities to timely and accurately define, monitor, and verify their sustainable actions as well as to strengthen collaboration and engagement among them. The learning focused on regional/provincial authorities and their agencies that are responsible for collecting and overseeing the monitoring of mitigation and adaptation measure indicators in order to empower them to make use of best practices. The project builds on the successful H2020 PROSPECT project and goes one step further by enabling accurate and successful data collection, dissemination and validation, monitoring and verification practices, and proper monitoring indicators in cities and regions across the EU. ENERGee Watch is an existing informal European network of regional greenhouse gas observatories managed by FEDARENE whose mission is to collect, monitor, report GHG Emissions and implement energy saving strategies and policies, to which the project brings this already existing informal network to a higher level by achieving specific and strategic objectives.
The specific objectives of ENERGee Watch were:
1. To develop and execute a complete and easily replicable peer to peer learning program addressing regional authorities or their associations and agencies. In this way, by building capacity of regional authorities, the project could reach a few hundred of their cities and local members through the passing down of knowledge.
2. To create effective and productive peer-to-peer groups among regional and local authorities and agencies within and outside consortium partners, in order to ensure the exchange of experience and expertise on MRV.
3. To build partnerships that will stimulate mutual understanding of each other’s issues, situations and challenges with the aim of exploring new ideas, options and solutions.
4. To further improve the replicability and comparability of measurement and verification practices through empowering mentors and strengthening their knowledge.
5. To identify and set up a proper replication mechanism for the learning programs available to regions/cities beyond the consortium network and the project’s duration.
ENERGee Watch launched a peer-to-peer learning programme to enable regional and local authorities to timely and accurately define, monitor, and verify their sustainable actions as well as to strengthen collaboration and engagement among them. The learning focused on regional/provincial authorities and their agencies that are responsible for collecting and overseeing the monitoring of mitigation and adaptation measure indicators in order to empower them to make use of best practices. The project builds on the successful H2020 PROSPECT project and goes one step further by enabling accurate and successful data collection, dissemination and validation, monitoring and verification practices, and proper monitoring indicators in cities and regions across the EU. ENERGee Watch is an existing informal European network of regional greenhouse gas observatories managed by FEDARENE whose mission is to collect, monitor, report GHG Emissions and implement energy saving strategies and policies, to which the project brings this already existing informal network to a higher level by achieving specific and strategic objectives.
The specific objectives of ENERGee Watch were:
1. To develop and execute a complete and easily replicable peer to peer learning program addressing regional authorities or their associations and agencies. In this way, by building capacity of regional authorities, the project could reach a few hundred of their cities and local members through the passing down of knowledge.
2. To create effective and productive peer-to-peer groups among regional and local authorities and agencies within and outside consortium partners, in order to ensure the exchange of experience and expertise on MRV.
3. To build partnerships that will stimulate mutual understanding of each other’s issues, situations and challenges with the aim of exploring new ideas, options and solutions.
4. To further improve the replicability and comparability of measurement and verification practices through empowering mentors and strengthening their knowledge.
5. To identify and set up a proper replication mechanism for the learning programs available to regions/cities beyond the consortium network and the project’s duration.
The ENERGee Watch Consortium created and initiated a peer-to-peer learning program for regional authorities consisting of four different courses:
Course 1: Data collection (acquisition and treatment)
Course 2: Monitoring, reporting, verification: follow up on the implementation of actions
Course 3: Indicators and strategies on adaptation to climate change
Course 4: Data display, dissemination, and validation by local authorities
The three learning cycles successfully took place in July 2021,June 2022 and November 2022. During the duration of the project, ENERGee Watch has achieved the following:
- The ENERGee Watch P2P programme brought together 70 mentees from 60 regional and local organisations around Europe, along with 18 observers, resulting in a total of 88 participants, to share and use the existing knowledge and information available on energy data for the purpose of creating better policies and sustainable action plans.
- Over 60 letters of commitment have been signed, pledging the dissemination of knowledge to at least 5 peers outside the project consortium.
- Each of the 70 trained experts work with an average of 9 measures within their SECAPs, meaning that at least 630 sustainable policies and strategic documents will have been influenced and impacted by the LP. This figure does not consider the replication effect, or whether mentees have or will transfer knowledge further to their networks.
- An observatory platform was developed, compiling 20 sources that can be used in the implementation of energy saving strategies and policies.
- The expansion of 6 energy observatories took place, during which concepts supplied by the project were incorporated.
- 10 national replication events were held, gathering over 240 participants from 125 organisations.
- 4 EU replication webinars took place resulting in the attendance of a total of 168 participants from 78 unique organisations from EU and non-EU countries.
- Prospects for the establishment of 5 new energy agencies and their observatories took place following the learning programme and replication events.
- A public e-learning platform that can be used to increase the knowledge and capacity of anyone interested in MRV topics, particularly to advance activities related to SEAP and SECAP implementation has been released.
- A repository of 55 MRV best practices has been made available to inspire stakeholders to improve their sustainable actions and create more effective and impactful policies.
Course 1: Data collection (acquisition and treatment)
Course 2: Monitoring, reporting, verification: follow up on the implementation of actions
Course 3: Indicators and strategies on adaptation to climate change
Course 4: Data display, dissemination, and validation by local authorities
The three learning cycles successfully took place in July 2021,June 2022 and November 2022. During the duration of the project, ENERGee Watch has achieved the following:
- The ENERGee Watch P2P programme brought together 70 mentees from 60 regional and local organisations around Europe, along with 18 observers, resulting in a total of 88 participants, to share and use the existing knowledge and information available on energy data for the purpose of creating better policies and sustainable action plans.
- Over 60 letters of commitment have been signed, pledging the dissemination of knowledge to at least 5 peers outside the project consortium.
- Each of the 70 trained experts work with an average of 9 measures within their SECAPs, meaning that at least 630 sustainable policies and strategic documents will have been influenced and impacted by the LP. This figure does not consider the replication effect, or whether mentees have or will transfer knowledge further to their networks.
- An observatory platform was developed, compiling 20 sources that can be used in the implementation of energy saving strategies and policies.
- The expansion of 6 energy observatories took place, during which concepts supplied by the project were incorporated.
- 10 national replication events were held, gathering over 240 participants from 125 organisations.
- 4 EU replication webinars took place resulting in the attendance of a total of 168 participants from 78 unique organisations from EU and non-EU countries.
- Prospects for the establishment of 5 new energy agencies and their observatories took place following the learning programme and replication events.
- A public e-learning platform that can be used to increase the knowledge and capacity of anyone interested in MRV topics, particularly to advance activities related to SEAP and SECAP implementation has been released.
- A repository of 55 MRV best practices has been made available to inspire stakeholders to improve their sustainable actions and create more effective and impactful policies.
By involving experts from all Europe upstream in the knowledge production process, we aimed to strengthen ENERGee Watch’s impact by gradually working on useful knowledge and communication that is salient, legitimate, and credible and enables policymakers to better inform their policies and plans. Through the learning programme process and the knowledge exchange between the mentor and the participants, each participant reviewed the current situation in their region with respect to data sharing and identified key energy data providers and users. Mentors used their expertise to guide participants on how to develop and implement collaboration models with energy data stakeholders in their region and define specific technical aspects (such as format of data, periodicity of data provision, etc.). The participants analysed the specific sustainable projects they wanted to monitor and verify and discussed them within their learning groups, pointing out barriers and difficulties they were facing or may face.
During the peer-to-peer learning process, a detailed action plan for each participant was prepared, including information about the learning objectives, key steps to enhance their MRV procedures, and activities to disseminate the knowledge gained with other colleagues. A commitment letter was signed by the highest representative of the organization of each participant to ensure the commitment of the organisation to be an active stakeholder in the project and make use of the results. The approach of ENERGee Watch facilitates the development and monitoring of SEAPs and other energy plans.
Through the project, the estimated energy savings triggered by ENERGee Watch actions is 43.485 GWh/year and the estimated renewable energy production is 19.078 GWh/year with a total of 1,468 improved measures.
During the peer-to-peer learning process, a detailed action plan for each participant was prepared, including information about the learning objectives, key steps to enhance their MRV procedures, and activities to disseminate the knowledge gained with other colleagues. A commitment letter was signed by the highest representative of the organization of each participant to ensure the commitment of the organisation to be an active stakeholder in the project and make use of the results. The approach of ENERGee Watch facilitates the development and monitoring of SEAPs and other energy plans.
Through the project, the estimated energy savings triggered by ENERGee Watch actions is 43.485 GWh/year and the estimated renewable energy production is 19.078 GWh/year with a total of 1,468 improved measures.