Covenant community’s needs for SE(C)AP design and implementation

The present report outlines the results of a needs-assessment process conducted from April to June 2017 by the EU Covenant of Mayors Office to identify the main capacity-building needs and knowledge gaps of local, regional and national authorities in terms of urban climate and energy planning. The information presented in this document was gathered by the EU Covenant of Mayors Office with municipalities, provinces, regions and national ministries. This process aimed to identify the main capacity-building needs and knowledge gaps of local, regional and national authorities in terms of urban climate and energy planning. The main findings were:

• cities are less aware of and less equipped for climate change adaptation than climate change mitigation;
• a lack of financial resources is the greatest barrier to climate action;
• cities need support for climate action, especially climate adaptation;
• municipalities need assistance for both the planning and implementation of their climate and energy action;
• the strong need for specific support on finance is a matter of consensus for a large majority of municipalities, provinces, regions and national ministries;
• there is a preference for greater numbers of capacity-building resources available online, more local workshops, and a greater diversity of hosting languages.