First round of workshops finalized with the MICATool Pilot Cities

MICATool Pilot Cities have committed to co-develop and test the tool over a two-year period – starting in Spring 2021, lasting until Spring 2023 – with support from the MICAT project team. Three workshops are planned in this period of time, of which the first round of workshops in the three Pilot Cities Calvià, Vitoria-Gasteiz and Tartu has now been finalized.

This first workshop was set up to engage local key stakeholders to help highlight the wider impacts of energy efficiency measures in each city’s respective climate policymaking and planning work.

Each city had invited participants from different city administration departments, to contribute with their perspectives. Additionally, the workshop saw a broad range of stakeholders, from an environmental associations, over a regional energy agency, a larger local business, a sectorial business association, to regional government representatives.

Each city had its own focus, be it energy efficiency in the tourist sector in Calvia, the growing private sector and energy communities in Tartu, or the alignment with SDG policy frameworks in Vitoria-Gasteiz. The common denominator in all Pilot Cities is that they are in the process of developing or updating their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP), making them active contributors to the Covenant of Mayors initiative that promotes local government action on climate change. The outcomes of the first workshop were a selection of indicators on multiple impacts that are most relevant to each city’s SECAP actions and measures planned. Questions related to data use and availability at the city level and how meaningful these data points are for the MICATool were also discussed during the workshops. From this point, the tool development can start, and a more reflective second round of workshops are envisioned to happen next year.

Written by: Niklas Mischkowski, ICLEI – Local Governments for Sustainability