EU Tracker – Local heating and cooling plans in Cyprus
Summary
What is the status of the transposition of Art 25.6(EDD) and its implementation ??
Cyprus is not ready for implementing EED article 25.6, which will require new regulation and competences to local authorities, and an appropriate support framework.
Cyprus has no regulatory framework in place for preparing local heating and cooling plans. Cypriot local authorities lack competence on climate and energy related issues and have no tradition of local spatial planning. Addressing heating and cooling aspects in integrated strategic energy planning will be an important tool in Cyprus to make the built environment and energy systems more adaptable to extreme climatic conditions. A new planning regulation framework will most likely be necessary. Financial support has been made accessible but has not yet targeted planning related activities and measures. Technical support for energy planning meanwhile remains very limited, while a shortage of staff and skills and lack of access to data put further barriers to local heating and cooling planning in Cyprus.
Detailed assessment
The legal framework and the obligations
No obligation nor incentive in place to draft a local heating and cooling plan
Overview of the legal frameworks per governance level
| National | Cyprus’ main climate and energy objectives are defined in its 2019 Integrated National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), and its 2023 draft for an updated NECP. The draft plan sets an indicative target at 48,2 % by 2030 for the share of renewable energy in the heating and cooling consumption. It includes various measures for energy efficiency and to electrify heating and energy for cooling but does not contain any reference to local heating and cooling planning or local strategic energy planning in general. District heating or cooling has not been developed in Cyprus. |
| Local | Local governments (both municipalities for urban areas & communities for rural areas) have no competences for energy and climate matters, and there is no tradition in Cyrpus of spatial planning at the local level. 24 Cypriot municipalities have developed a Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors Initiative. However, these plans do not have a strategic vision on heating and cooling measures, are not linked to spatial planning, and measures targeting heating and energy for cooling are limited to publicly owned assets. |
The support framework
There is no support mechanism for local energy planning but some technical and financial support to decarbonise the municipal building stock
There is no support mechanism in place in Cyprus useful for drafting local heating and cooling plans. Local authorities are eligible to a new EU funded support scheme for energy efficiency measures and the deployment of renewable energy sources. This framework may be redesigned to support local heating and cooling planning. Data access and the lack of staff and know-how in municipalities will nevertheless need substantial improvement to enable any progress on the drafting of local heating and cooling plans in Cyprus.
Provided Support
| Technical and organisational | 1/5 | There is no technical support available for the development of local heating and cooling plan. The only targeted support related to energy efficiency and decarbonisation available for local authorities concerns technical support and advice by the Cyprus Energy Agency to apply for the grant scheme for energy upgrades (outlined in the following section), or by the same organisation to develop Sustainable Energy and Climate Plans (SECAPS) undertaken within the framework of the Covenant of Mayors initiative. Coordinating support through Cyprus Energy Agency for the purpose of drafting heating and cooling plans may be an option to consider. |
| Financial | 2/5 | There is currently no financial support in Cyprus targeting local energy planning. As part of Cyprus Recovery and Resilience plan, the Cypriot government set up in 2022 a grant scheme for encouraging energy upgrades which targets Local Authorities and other public entities. It covers up to 100 % of the costs for measures aimed at energy savings, energy refurbishment of buildings, and the deployment of renewable energy systems. Local authorities are provided with technical support from the energy agency of Cyprus as well as by external contractors to define and propose measures. The scheme has so far however not covered strategic, integrated or spatial planning related aspects. |
| Staff & skills | 1/5 | Most local governments do not have dedicated staff working on energy-related topics. They currently rely exclusively on external support from the Cyprus Energy Agency or external contractors to draft SECAPS. The lack of competence on energy-related issues in local administrations will likely entail a continuous high reliance on external expertise for energy planning purposes, and retaining skills and knowledge on these issues in public administrations on the longer term will be an important challenge to consider in Cyprus. |
| Access to data | 1/5 | The access to energy and building-related geodata in Cyprus is overall limited. There is no database with energy consumption data, and most studies are developed on assumptions from aggregated data from Electricity Agencies, Cyprus Statistical Service and Meteorological Department of Cyprus, and relevant isolated studies conducted by universities and research institutes, often within the framework of EU funded programmes. Municipalities cannot currently access data needed to assess renewable energy potential within their territory. Building data are existing (as Energy Performance Certificates or surface and age of the building) but are very scattered, not harmonised and thus difficult to analyse and use for modelling. In the draft NECP, it is stated that Cyprus aims at developing an online database that would contain all relevant information on the building stock (e.g., information from a cadastre, urban planning, building information system), which if realised would greatly facilitate the drafting of local heating and cooling plans. |
