Polotsk may join the European Covenant of Mayors in September

April 15, Minsk / Anna Kot - BELTA /. Polotsk may join the European Covenant of Mayors in September this year. This was announced today at the conference "Energy Efficiency: European Experience, Cooperation and Prospects for Belarus" by Ivan Shchedrenok, Director of the "Interaktsiya" institution, BELTA correspondent reports. At the conference, Ivan Shchedrenok presented the project "SURE: Sustainable Energy Development in ENPI Cities - on the Path to the Covenant of Mayors". The project has been underway since early 2010 and is designed for 30 months. Its budget is about 800 thousand euros. The project partners include the administration of the city of Friedrichshafen (lead partner, Germany), the administration of the city of Murcia (Spain), the Polotsk City Executive Committee (Belarus), the administration of the city of Salé (Morocco), and the Mediterranean Commission of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (France). A total of four cities are participating in the project. It is planned to allocate 250-300 thousand euros from the project for financing in Polotsk. At the same time, only 20 thousand euros will be allocated from the city budget. The project aims to promote cooperation between the Eastern and Southern regions of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument, as well as the sustainable energy development of two cities (Polotsk and Salé) by joining the Covenant of Mayors, a popular European initiative. Its participants undertake to implement the EU strategy known as "20-20-20". The goal of the strategy is to achieve significant improvements in sustainable energy development by 2020: a 20% reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, an increase in the share of alternative energy sources to 20%, and a 20% increase in energy efficiency. Currently, a Spanish organization with experience in this field is developing a sustainable energy development plan for Belarus, and negotiations are underway to involve the Belarusian subcontractor - the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences. The plan for Salé and Polotsk is planned to be submitted to the Covenant of Mayors by the end of this year. The development of the plan includes a baseline analysis of carbon dioxide emissions in the city, collection of information on the main energy sources and consumers, an audit of 10 municipal property objects, and a study of energy-saving opportunities in municipal and communal property buildings and opportunities for introducing alternative energy sources into them. After the development of the sustainable development plan, it is planned that the project will finance one pilot measure of this plan. This will be the implementation of energy-saving lamps on E. Polotskaya Street in Polotsk. 40-50 thousand euros will be allocated for this. -0-