The Sustainable Energy Development Plan for Polotsk will be presented to the public for the first time
12/03/20120 views
On March 12, Vitebsk / Diana Kurilo - BELTA /. A presentation of the city's sustainable energy development plan, as well as the results of public consultations, will be held in Polotsk on March 13, a BELTA correspondent was informed at the Polotsk City Executive Committee.
Polotsk became the first Belarusian participant in the Covenant of Mayors, a European campaign uniting cities that have pledged to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, and began developing a sustainable energy development plan. The first working draft was developed by experts from the Spanish company "Bionet" and the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. Spanish specialists, based on the analysis of the current situation in the field of energy consumption and energy saving, and the results of energy audits of ten Polotsk facilities conducted by specialists from the Institute of Energy of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, proposed a plan for the city to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 20% by 2020 by implementing measures aimed at reducing consumption and stimulating the use of renewable energy sources in the city. In particular, it was proposed to carry out energy-saving measures in public and residential buildings, in the city lighting system, in city and private transport, and at utility enterprises. In addition, experts proposed to make wider use of local and renewable energy sources for electricity generation.
The final presentation of the plan will take place on March 13. Proposals for the formation of a working group for the sustainable development of Polotsk and for holding energy days and an international conference will also be presented here.
The project "SURE: Sustainable Energy for the ENP Cities – 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 European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI) cities – Polotsk and Salé (Morocco) – by joining the Covenant of Mayors and undertaking commitments to implement the EU strategy known as "20-20-20". The strategy's goal 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. Project partners include 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-
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