Policy News

Energy Cities to the German government: Support an ambitious EU Energy Efficiency Directive

The former Energiewende pioneer needs to seriously step up

In an open letter sent to the German Minister for Energy and Economy, Peter Altmaier, our president and lord mayor of Heidelberg, Eckart Würzner, calls on Germany to champion a strong and robust energy efficiency policy for Europe through the future Energy Efficiency Directive.

An EU budget to achieve Europe’s climate objectives

Energy cities joined a broad group of business associations, civil society, think tanks and other organisations to ask President Juncker to make sure that the EU’s future finances are aligned with Europe’s climate objectives and consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Hardwiring climate action into the next research and innovation programme

A recently published letter puts pressure on Commissioners Moedas and Oettinger

Energy cities joined a broad group of business associations, civil society, think tanks and other organisations to ask Commissioners Moedas and Oettinger to make sure that the EU’s next research and innovation programme allows for an effective climate action.

The case for a permanent climate and energy dialogue with cities

A joint briefing to highlight best practices of multilevel governance

EU institutions are currently negotiating a regulation on the “governance” of the Energy Union. To make sure cities have an actual say in the process, Energy Cities has teamed up with a number of other city networks and the think tank E3G to support the establishment of permanent “Multilevel Climate and Energy Dialogue Platforms”

Response to the New Energy Market Design Consultation

In July, the European Commission launched a public consultation process on the new energy market design

Energy Cities responded to the European Commission consultation on the new Energy Market Design, running until the end of October 2015. In our view, the new energy market design should ensure equal treatment and non-discrimination for all market players, be it private companies or energy citizens.

The local view on EU policies

Energy Cities is the local authorities’ watchdog on European and national energy and climate policies. Now that Brussels has formally adopted its “clean energy package”, we monitor how the progressive provisions we advocated for are being translated at national level. On the EU front, we continue to call for a better alignment of energy, regional and agricultural policies and for an overall budget in line with the 2050 decarbonisation objective.