CONCERTO commenced in 2005 as part of the European Commission’s Sixth Research Framework Programme, and quickly took hold. Five years later, 58 cities in 23 countries across Europe are participating in CONCERTO, while over 70 associated communities benefit from knowledge and policy recommendations implemented through the initiative.
CONCERTO supports local communities, as clearly defined geographical areas or zones, in developing and demonstrating concrete strategies and actions that are both sustainable and highly energy efficient. Interactions and relevant energy flows between centralised and decentralised energy supplies and demands can be identified, measured and assessed.
The CONCERTO initiative has been only possible as a result of the strong commitment from the relevant, local authorities and includes technical experts, academics, and private companies from across Europe.
Through this joint commitment, CONCERTO has proven that the use of renewable energy sources and energy efficiency measures in building is both affordable and highly compatible with a high standard of living. Indeed, authorities that have striven to be ambitious under CONCERTO have regularly outperformed national standards.
In a recent statement, CONCERTO revealed that since 2005, the initiative has enabled CONCERTO communities to achieve an estimated reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of approximately 310,000 tCO2/yr. The CONCERTO communities alone reduce the equivalent of total carbon dioxide emissions of a ca 30,000 inhabitants town per year including carbon dioxide emissions from transport, living, food, industry etc.
Across the demonstration sites, 1,830,000 square-metres of buildings have been built or renovated, electricity use has been reduced by a fifth, and the quantity of renewable energy sources has increased (150GWh of electricity and 250 GWh of heat are now produced via renewable sources each year).
Emissions halved
CONCERTO cities have shown that through innovative technologies and integrated approach, the built environment can cut its carbon dioxide emissions by up to 50%.
The current CONCERTO activities comprise a population of approximately 5 million people with about 500,000 inhabitants directly or indirectly affected. The Forum will feature a wide range of high-level speakers ranging from CONCERTO city mayors, well-known and prominent MEPs, and important figures from within the European Commission.
Key note-speakers at the showcase event next week will include: the European Commissioner for Energy, Günther Oettinge; Fabrizio Barbaso, Deputy Director-General DG ENERGY, the Mayors of Nantes Métropole, Hannover, Weilerbach and Torino; and MEPs Claude Turmes, Silvia Adriana Ticau and Angelika Niebler.
Smarter cities
Based on the CONCERTO experiences, the European Commission will soon launch its Smart Cities Initiative as part of its SET-Plan. The Smart Cities Initiative aims to improve energy efficiency and to step up the deployment of renewable energy in large cities going even further than the levels foreseen in the EU energy and climate change policy.
The three primary objectives of Smart Cities are: 1) to trigger a sufficient take-up (reaching 5% of the EU population) of energy efficient and low carbon technologies to unlock the market; 2) to reduce by 40% the greenhouse gas22 emissions by 2020, that will demonstrate not only environmental and energy security benefits but also to provide socio-economic advantages in terms of quality of life, local employment and businesses, and citizen empowerment; and 3) to effectively spread across Europe best practices of sustainable energy concepts at local level, for instance through the Covenant of Majors.
By 2020, the European Commission forecasts that Smart Cities initiative should have put 25 to 30 European cities at the forefront of the transition to a low carbon future.
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