The Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative was originally aimed at supporting EU cities in developing sustainable energy measures and today brings together more than 13,000 signatories from around the world. The CoM East initiative was launched in 2011 and has gradually expanded in scope. It currently brings together hundreds of local governments in the Eastern Partnership countries committed to fighting climate change. It covers Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine from 2022. The initiative supports these cities in developing local policies addressing climate challenges, based on sustainable energy principles and strengthening energy security. It is in line with the EU Eastern Partnership’s objective to work with partner countries to strengthen environmental and climate resilience. Local governments that voluntarily join CoM East commit to taking action against climate change on their territory with a view to achieving climate and energy targets by 2030. The initiative is based on three pillars: climate change mitigation, climate change adaptation and energy poverty (which will become mandatory in 2025). The strategies and measures developed by signatories are collected in Sustainable Energy and Climate Plans (SECAPs) and reported through the MyCovenant and CDP-ICLEI Track platforms. Before 2016, the initiative focused mainly on climate change mitigation, with signatories committing to reduce CO2 emissions by at least 20 % by 2020 and to develop and implement Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAPs). Since 2016, the emission reduction target has been increased to 30 % by 2030 (later to 35 % from 2021) and the climate adaptation and energy poverty pillars have been integrated, transforming SEAPs into SECAPs. The Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Commission provides scientific, methodological and technical support to the CoM initiative and is responsible for the evaluation of SECAPs. This report is a preliminary assessment of the status of implementation of the initiative for the period 2021-2023 and is intended to serve as a bridge between the previous and the next planned report in 2025.

SECAP rating and methodology: Local authorities that join the CoM commit to a more sustainable, low-carbon, resilient and equitable development of their territories. As part of this, signatories assess the state of their policies and practices, the current conditions of their territorial and economic assets in terms of energy consumption, carbon emissions, vulnerable sectors and population groups, as well as energy accessibility. They then set objectives, strategies and plan actions, which are included in SECAPs and reported through official platforms. SECAPs are assessed by the JRC on the basis of completeness and consistency criteria covering the general process and the two active pillars of the initiative: climate change mitigation and adaptation. The third pillar, energy poverty, will become mandatory from January 2025, although signatories can already develop strategies and actions in this area. The assessment criteria include:

• General criteria:
  • SECAP is approved by an official body (usually the city council).
  • The mandatory data and information in MyCovenant are complete and correctly filled out.
• Mitigation assessment criteria:
  • SECAP clearly specifies the overall goal of reducing CO2 emissions.
  • Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) results are provided, covering key sectors of activity.
  • SECAP contains a set of measures aimed at achieving the set emission reduction target in key sectors, including at least 3 key mitigation measures.
• Adaptation evaluation criteria:
  • SECAP includes at least one adaptation objective.
  • The SECAP includes a complete local risk and vulnerability assessment (RVA).
  • The SECAP contains a set of measures aimed at achieving the set adaptation goals, including at least 3 key adaptation measures.

If any criterion is not fully met, the signatory is contacted to request further information and provide recommendations to meet all criteria. The JRC may provide recommendations for improvement even after the SECAP has been accepted. The assessment of the CoM initiative in the Eastern Partnership countries presented in this report is based on a review of the information submitted by signatories via the MyCovenant platform for the period 2021-2023.

Results: As of 31 December 2023, the CoM East initiative had a total of 401 signatories with a commitment until 2030. Their number has gradually increased, especially since 2016. Most of them are Ukrainian cities (247), followed by cities in Moldova (90), Georgia (29), Armenia (27) and Azerbaijan (8). The initiative covers a total of more than 20 million inhabitants and includes cities of various sizes. Between the last CoM East evaluation report (as of 31 May 2021) and the end of 2023, the initiative has been joined by 75 new placesDuring this period, the Republic of Moldova had the highest number of new signatories (35 cities), followed by Ukraine (27 cities).

This report analyses 38 SECAPs evaluated as of 31 December 2023. The success rate of the analysis was 95 % for mitigation and 87 % for adaptation. No SECAPs were submitted from Georgia during the reporting period. The SECAPs assessed were submitted by signatories of varying sizes. Cities exceed the minimum mitigation commitment, with an average greenhouse gas emission reduction target by 2030 of over 35 % for signatories in Azerbaijan, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine. The average emission reduction commitment is 38 %, which is above the current minimum target of 35 % for this area. The adaptation targets most often concern greening and afforestation (20 %), water management (30 %) and integrated approaches (14 %). The target year is 2030 for the 82 % SECAPs analysed. All assessed signatories propose an emissions reduction target compared to the base year and provide a complete CO2 emission inventory based on actual energy consumption data. Most signatories use a base year between 2007 and 2021. The aggregated final energy consumption in the base year in the 38 SECAPs analysed is 11,023,307 MWh/year and the total CO2 emissions are 3.1 million tCO2-eq/year. Ukrainian cities show the highest per capita emissions. At the sectoral level, 63 % of total CO2-eq emissions from the residential building sector, followed by transport (14 %) and the tertiary buildings sector (9 %). Planned mitigation measures focus mainly on the municipal buildings sector. Signatories include in their SECAPs a risk and vulnerability assessment, identifying the risks, their likelihood, expected impact and vulnerable sectors. On average, each signatory identified 9 climate risks. The most common risks with high probability of occurrence and high impact are heavy rainfall, floods and sea level rise, drought and water scarcity, extreme heat. Almost all sectors are considered vulnerable to extreme heat, which is also the most frequently targeted risk for adaptation measures. The health, environment and biodiversity, and civil protection and emergencies sectors are considered highly vulnerable by signatories in all countries. The assessed SECAPs contain on average 33 measures (mitigation, adaptation, energy poverty). Most climate mitigation measures focus on the buildings sector (more than 60 %), followed by transport (11 %) and local energy production (8 %). In the area of adaptation, much attention is paid to raising awareness and sharing knowledge about climate risks and adaptation opportunities, as well as the reconstruction of flood protection and surface drainage systems.

Conclusions: The evaluation shows that the CoM East initiative continues to attract interest from local governments in the region. Ukrainian governments are the most active in submitting SECAPs despite geopolitical challenges. All assessed signatories submitted a complete SECAP, including both mitigation and adaptation commitments. The JRC evaluation reveals the overall completeness of the mandatory information in both pillars, with reporting quality is higher for the mitigation pillar. The adaptation pillar still has room for improvement, in particular in identifying clear and quantified targets and measures. Signatories commit to reducing emissions by an average of 38 %, exceeding the minimum required commitment for the CoM East region (35 %). Although planning and reporting on energy poverty is still at an early stage, signatories have started to integrate energy poverty aspects into their climate change mitigation measures. Improvements have been noted in the area of adaptation, with the most frequently identified risks being heavy rainfall, floods, drought and extreme heat, with extreme heat being the most common target for adaptation measures. The CoM East initiative plays a significant role in guiding and incentivising local governments in the region on the path towards decarbonisation and resilience. Future steps of the initiative may focus on improving the definition of adaptation targets and coherence of measures, as well as on skills development and capacity building for the inclusion of the new energy poverty pillar. Spring

Glossary of key terms

• Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy (CoM): A global initiative bringing together cities and regions that voluntarily commit to implementing EU climate and energy goals on their territory.
• CoM East: A specific branch of the Covenant of Mayors initiative focused on the Eastern Partnership countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine).
• Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP): A key strategic document developed by signatory cities that sets out their goals, strategies and actions in the areas of climate change mitigation, adaptation and addressing energy poverty.
• Mitigation: Measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to slowing climate change.
• Adaptation: Measures aimed at reducing vulnerability to the adverse impacts of climate change and increasing the resilience of communities and territories.
• Energy Poverty: A situation where households or individuals do not have access to basic energy services at affordable prices.
• Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI): An inventory of greenhouse gas emissions from a specific reference (baseline) year that serves as a starting point for tracking progress in reducing emissions.
• Risk and Vulnerability Assessment (RVA): The process of identifying and assessing potential risks associated with climate change and the vulnerability of different sectors and population groups to these risks.
• Joint Research Centre (JRC): The European Commission's science and knowledge service, which provides independent scientific evidence and support for EU policymaking.
• DG NEAR: European Commission Directorate-General for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations.
• GHG: Greenhouse gases.
• CO2-eq: Carbon dioxide equivalent, a unit used to compare different greenhouse gases based on their global warming potential.