On the occasion of a meeting last October in Ettlingen, the French & German Covenant of Mayors Clubs started working on a joint declaration, which was amended after COP21 and has now been adopted.

In this declaration, the Covenant Clubs make recommendations to their national governments, in a view to accelerate the local energy transition. Their recommendations are articulated around four main axes:

1. Providing further support to the Covenant of Mayors initiative to acknowledge local authorities' efforts, encourage them and attract more signatories. Members of the Covenant Clubs also recommend to improve synergies between the Covenant of Mayors Sustainable Energy Action Plans and national action plans to increase efficiency of local authorities' work.
2. Transferring the revenues generated by the European Emission Trading Scheme (profits made through certificate auctions) to feed national climate protection programmes. Implementing the reform of the ETS adopted by the European Parliament and adapting the system to the 2030 objectives.
3. Supporting a strong Energy Union that would be built in cooperation with local authorities with the aim to ensure energy security through renewable energies and energy efficiency.
4. Translating the global agreement on climate change into national law. Members of the Covenant Clubs call on their national governments to show even greater ambition as regards climate protection and to provide local authorities with access to funding instruments such as the Green Climate Fund, the Global Environment Facility and the Adaptation Fund.

The French & German Covenant of Mayors Clubs are seeking to directly deliver their recommendations to their respective national governments soon.

The Covenant of Mayors National Clubs were created in the framework of the NET-COM project. The meeting in Ettlingen was organised in the framework of the TANDEM project (French-German cooperation for the local energy transition), led by Energy Cities and Climate Alliance.