EU Covenant of Mayors and World Alliance for Efficient Solutions join forces on clean energy solutions and climate action

A Memorandum of Understanding between the EU Covenant of Mayors and the  World Alliance for Efficient Solutions was signed on 16 November 2017 during the EU Energy Day conference in Bonn, in the margins of the COP 23 UN Climate Change Conference hosted by Fiji and Germany.

The two organisations chose to strengthen bilateral cooperation  in  areas  of  common  interest,  notably  in  clean,  smart,  efficient  and  renewable  energy technologies, related societal innovation and low carbon development. Eckart Würzner, Mayor of Heidelberg and Member of the Covenant Political Board, and Bertrand Piccard, Initiator  and  President  of  the  Solar  Impulse  Foundation and Chairman of the WAES,  signed  the  Memorandum.

By bridging local and regional authorities willing to develop and implement technological innovations and pilot projects on the one side, and innovative entrepreneurs on the other, this partnership will bring forward solutions that create cleaner, more sustainable and more liveable environments for citizens and their deployment at local level.

Background

The  European Covenant  of  Mayors  for  Climate  &  Energy  brings  together  more than 7600  local  and  regional  authorities  voluntarily committed to implementing EU energy and climate objectives on their territory. The European Covenant of Mayors has been initiated and is supported by the European Commission.

The World Alliance for Efficient Solutions aims at federating actors in the field in clean technologies and shed light on existing efficient solutions to fast-track their implementation.