On August 3, Spanish and Belarusian experts will present the first version of the energy development plan for Polotsk

August 1, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA/. Experts from the Spanish company "Bionet" and the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus will present the first working version of the Sustainable Energy Development Plan for Polotsk to Polotsk specialists within the framework of the European project SURE, the Polotsk City Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent.

The development and implementation of the Sustainable Energy Development Plan is a mandatory condition for Polotsk to join the Covenant of Mayors, a European network of cities that commit to significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020. Polotsk plans to join the Covenant of Mayors in September of this year and thus will become the first Belarusian participant in this European initiative.

The working meeting, which will be held on August 3, will be attended by specialists from Polotsk and the Vitebsk region involved in energy issues in the city, SURE project experts from Belarus, Germany and Spain, as well as employees of the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, who will present the results of the energy audit of ten municipal facilities in Polotsk. Participants of the working meeting will also discuss proposals from Belarusian and Spanish experts regarding a pilot energy saving project, for the implementation of which about 40 thousand euros will be allocated from the SURE project budget.

The project "SURE: Sustainable Energy for Cities in the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument region - towards the Covenant of Mayors" is being implemented under the EU CIUDAD programme. The project is designed for 30 months and has a budget of approximately EUR 790,000. The project aims to promote sustainable energy development in two cities of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) - Polotsk  and Salé (Morocco) - by joining the Covenant of Mayors and committing to the implementation of the EU strategy known as "20-20-20". The goal of the strategy is to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20%, increase the share of alternative energy sources to 20%, and improve energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. The project partners are the administrations of the cities of Friedrichshafen (lead partner, Germany), Murcia (Spain), Salé (Morocco), Polotsk City Executive Committee (Belarus), and the Mediterranean Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (France).-0-