There is no excuse for weak EU National Energy and Climate Plans

NECPs are the new framework in which EU Member States will have to design their Paris-proof energy and climate transition


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Author

David Donnerer

Publication date

February 14, 2019

Through the recently launched LIFE PlanUp project, Energy Cities and its civil society and research partners across Europe will closely track the so-called NECP process in its five focus countries Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary and Romania. LIFE PlanUp will also promote effective decarbonisation and participatory governance policies that can be adopted and replicated in EU countries.

For strong and inclusive energy and climate plans

The NECPs are the result of the new EU Energy Union Governance Regulation, which has channeled the existing practice of different national plans for energy efficiency or renewable energy now into one, cohesive strategy. EU Member States will outline in their plans the objectives, policies, targets and measures for how they want to decarbonise their economies, in line with the Paris Agreement. NECPs should address the five dimensions of the Energy Union: climate action, energy efficiency, internal energy market, security of supply and research, innovation and competitiveness.

Interactive online engagement platform

The LIFE PlanUp project will shine a light on the status of the NECPs in its five target countries Spain, Italy, Poland, Hungary and Romania, through its easy-to-access and interactive online engagement platform, planup.eu. The PlanUp platform will enable users to share their experiences and reactions through its open-source “Debating Climate” forum. Furthermore, data gathered and analysed by project partners will be made available online and then debated with national policymakers, local authorities, NGOs and academia in capacity-building workshops, and stakeholder dialogues.

Promoting good decarbonisation and governance policies

To ensure that Member States’ NECPs are strong and inclusive tools to supportthe decarbonisation of Europe, LIFE PlanUpwill promote good practices across theagriculture, transport and building sectors. Through national dialogues, PlanUp also aims to examine and champion newlow-carbon policy solutions, and assess the potential for their scaled-up application till 2030. Furthermore, good examples of governance and publicparticipation will be shared by the project, to provide inspiration and guidance formulti-level energy and climate dialogues with all stakeholders in Member States.

Energy Cities’ role in LIFE PlanUp

Energy Cities is responsible for coordinating the governance stream in LIFE PlanUp, by facilitating the establishment of a multi-level governance framework in the five target countries. We aim to achieve this by improving the coordination and cooperation between local authorities, national policymakers and NGOs in the development and implementation of NECPs. Furthermore, the organization of political roundtables, stakeholder gatherings and workshops with ministry officials will lay the ground for the set-up of participatory multi-level energy and climate dialogues in the focus countries. LIFE PlanUpalso seeks to raise awareness on the potential of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans under the Covenant of Mayors – Europeto contribute to the delivery of NECPs across Europe. Finally, we will create in the framework of the project a report on good practices in energy and climate governance across Europe, which will broadly promote the benefits of involving local authorities and NGOs in national policymaking.

Interested to know more about LIFE PlanUp and be informed about the project’s progress? 
Then visit the PlanUp online platform and subscribe to its quarterly newsletter!