ENGAGE cities taking visible action in Guimarães14 May 2012 | 18h10 | 285 visits
ENGAGE was part of the "Mind-Boggling Ideas For A New Energy Culture" of the Annual Energy Cities Rendezvous in Guimarães (Portugal). Representatives from ENGAGE cities proved that they walk the talk with the ENGAGE campaign. Ovidiu Cretu, Mayor of Bistrița (Romania), first city to follow in the steps of the 12 pioneer cities, Maria Madalena Castro, Councillor of Oeiras (Portugal) and Rory Palmer, Deputy Mayor of Leicester (UK) highlighted the benefits of the ENGAGE campaign to commit the public society to help achieve local energy targets. Concrete activities and outcomes from the pioneer cities of Leicester and Oeiras were presented. Indeed, ENGAGE has enabled to gather pledges from key players who are role models at the local level. First Turkish newcomer city, Bornova explained how ENGAGE could help them as a Covenant of Mayors signatory. During the ENGAGE European Users’ Club, pioneer ENGAGE cities shared their local experience. The cities of Växjö (Sweden) and Pamplona (Spain) explained how they successfully involved a wide range of local stakeholders and hundreds of citizens. The objective was also to demonstrate how cities prove that communications campaigns lead to real energy savings. Therefore, the cities of Ivanić-Grad (Croatia) and Heidelberg (Germany) detailed how ENGAGE participants monitor their energy consumption. The ENGAGE campaign is open to all European cities. 36 European local authorities are today actively involved in the campaign. |