The SEAP in the city of Girona, a crossroads between boldness and pragmatism

Abstract

The Covenant of Mayors has secured the commitments of over 5400 European Cities (as of December 2013) to achieving the European Union 20-20-20 climate change mitigation targets by 2020 through action at the local level. Due to the youth of the initiative, few experiences have been reported in the academic literature. We study the development of the Sustainable Energy Action Plan (SEAP) in the city of Girona (Catalonia, Spain) to analyse the opportunities and challenges this process may present in a small- to medium-sized, compact Mediterranean city. This knowledge can provide information to local authorities in similar municipalities, technical teams and decision-makers at the European level interested in enhancing the performance of such plans in the future. In this article, we explain how the SEAP was developed in Girona, the main results and proposed actions, and discuss the main setbacks. We conclude that an overarching European oversight organism is advisable to coordinate and aid local efforts.

Keywords:

• Sustainable Energy Action Plan
• Covenant of Mayors
• local sustainability
• energy efficiency
• climate change mitigation
• urban planning

Notes

1 Factor 4 measures: one simple example, even above the 4:1 ratio, is the LED bulb compared to the incandescent bulb. For 25,000 hours of light, 1 LED bulb is needed, for 25 incandescent ones, yet requiring 10 times less energy (Sukholthaman 2010).

2 Life is a EU financial instrument for sustainability demonstration projects. The objective of LAKS was to provide an international framework where participant cities and regions can discuss and devise a set of common criteria to develop their SEAPs and share experiences on their design and implementation.

3 Further expertise in the economic assessment of climate change could have provided information on the impact of BAU development on GDP – such as the effect of rising energy prices for the local commercial sector in the absence of energy efficiency measures or the variation in the energy share of household costs under warmer climate conditions and the related increase in cooling demand. Moreover, it would have also been interesting to evaluate potential green job opportunities resulting from SEAP implementation as means of a spurring governmental and social interest in this environmental strategy.