The Covenant of Mayors (CoM)
The EU Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy is an initiative supported by the European Commission bringing together thousands of local governments. By joining the initiative, they voluntarily commit to implementing EU climate and energy objectives. The CoM initiative provides local governments with a framework for their local energy and climate actions. In Europe, the Covenant of Mayors started in 2008. In 2015, the Global Covenant of Mayors was launched, capitalising on the experience gained in Europe and beyond.
eea & CoM - 1 climate neutrality goal, support from 2 initiatives
The eea and CoM are ideal complements for effective local climate action on communal level. While CoM demands a strong political commitment to ambitious climate goals, the eea offers nationally adapted, individual and well-structured support and incentives to the cities and communities to be able to implement their set goals.
To facilitate reporting for local governments involved in both initiatives, data can be exchanged automatically via the online tools of eea and CoM. European Energy Award cities and communities may manage CoM reporting (Baseline Emission Inventory, etc.) via the eea platform.
Longstanding cooperation between eea & CoM
The two initiatives eea and CoM have been working closely together since the Covenant of Mayors was founded:
- 2008: Foundation of the Covenant of Mayors: eea serves as a source of inspiration for the CoM initiative.
- 2012: Letter of Recognition from CoM to eea: eea is recognised as an excellent implementation tool of the CoM.
- 2019: Memorandum of Understanding between CoM and eea: long-standing informal cooperation between eea and CoM
- 2018 - 2021: CoME EASY project: Thanks to the EU funded H2020 project CoME EASY, the eea methodology could be better aligned with the CoM methodology. This optimized interoperability facilitates the daily operational work of local authorities.
- 2022/2023: Automatic interface between CoM and eea online tools for simplified reporting to both initiatives