City in the Spotlight Awards 2022: Call for applications open!

Are you a Covenant of Mayors Signatory (2030 or 2050 targets)? Has your municipality achieved outstanding progress in implementing mitigation and adaptation? Are you working to alleviate energy poverty and implement energy savings measures? Do you want to inspire other cities with your mid- (2030) and long-term (2050) actions and with your SECAPs?

Who can apply?

The Covenant 2022 Awards are open to all Covenant of Mayors – Europe signatories having at least the 2030 mitigation and adaptation targets, and that are compliant with all Covenant requirements, notably in terms of reporting.

One prize will be assigned for each of the following categories:
1 small-sized signatory (<50,000 inhabitants)
1 medium-sized signatory (50,000- 250,000 inhabitants)
1 large-sized signatory (>250,000 inhabitants)

Winners of the 2022 Awards will be invited to participate in the European Week of Regions and Cities, where they will be announced in the Covenant of Mayors’ session “RePowerEU: the role of cities and regions in accelerating the transition to renewables and improving energy efficiency” on 12 October in Brussels.

Winners will also receive:

– Travel and accommodation to attend the Covenant session where they will be announced as winners.
– Communication of their achievements on the Covenant website (interviews in the newsletter, blog articles, opportunity to develop a case study on one of their implemented projects).
– Possibility to be part of the expert pool of the peer-learning program.

How will cities be evaluated?

Cities will be evaluated on their SECAP (Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan) process, both based on the application and their submitted and reported data (through MyCovenant or CDP-ICLEI Track).

The following main aspects will be considered:

– Motivation, commitments (2030, 2050) and monitoring (status, achievements)
– Progress in reducing emissions and strengthening resilience (actions planned and implemented)
– Stakeholders’ involvement (types and means of engagement)
– Coherence of the Plan (Political goals, Plans consistency, financial strategy, integrated actions)
– SECAP financial strategy
– Transversal and integrated actions in the SECAP
– Energy Savings Measures (link to the Energy Saving Sprint campaign here)

Applicants are encouraged to add attachments (with a limit of two attachments per application – in English if possible) such as pictures, infographics, videos, short documents, etc.

All submitted proposals will be reviewed by the Covenant of Mayors – Europe Office and the Joint Research Center to check their compliance with the above-mentioned eligibility criteria. Shortlisted applications will be analysed and evaluated by the European Commission. The three most outstanding applications as detailed above will then be selected.

The City in the Spotlight Awards 2022, now at its 4^th edition, will reward those signatories demonstrating the highest commitments, motivation and progress towards climate neutrality.

Join the winners of the previous editions! :Barcelona , Sønderborg and Monsano in 2018, Turin , Turku and Montaione in 2020, Murcia & Padova in 2021. You can find more information about the 2021 edition here.

Applications for the Covenant City in the Spotlight Award will close on 31 July at 23:59 (CEST).

You can apply here.