Multi-level governance and partnership practices in development and implementation of Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP)

Signatories to the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) and their Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs) play a major role in the task of designing and implementing policies for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions on the local level. The success of the CoM to win close to 6,300 signatories by the time of the writing of this report required- and still requires - flexibility as well as guidance. The municipalities need at the same time: 1. flexibility for their SEAPs to adapt to local governance and financing frameworks, and 2. guidance regarding their design and implementation. Detailed instructions on how to develop a SEAP have already been issued earlier. The scope of this study allowed taking a closer look at a limited number of case studies. This gathers a range of actual experiences from CoM signatories, spanning singular municipalities as well as coordinating regions. The abstract recommendations that could be drawn from such a small set of samples are necessarily broad but show overarching challenges for a number of structures and local circumstances.