Energy agencies – Historical background and
long-term development
SAVE Agencies
In the 1990s, the European Commission took the initiative to support local actors in the energy field through the SAVE and SAVE II Programmes. These programmes integrated EU action on regional and urban energy management. The aim was to stimulate a 'bottom up' approach to energy management by encouraging local and regional action for energy efficiency, the use of local energy resources and sustainable development at the local level. To achieve this aim, SAVE co-funded the creation of autonomous Energy Management Agencies at the local and regional levels. These Agencies have cooperated with FEDARENE (Network of regional and local energy agencies), ENERGY-CITIES (Network for of local authorities) and ISLENET (Network of Island authorities).
The IEE energy agencies
Since 2004, energy agencies have been created under the framework of the Intelligent Energy Europe - Programme. Until 2009 over 80 energy agencies were created with the aim of contributing to the development of the European, national, regional and local energy policies. These policies should lead to changes in the decision makers' and citizens' behaviour towards a more efficient use of energy and increased knowledge of renewable energy. They should trigger investments in renewable energy especially at local and regional level. This support goes along with the development of the Initiative of the Covenant of Mayors at EU level. Find more about the role of local and regional energy agencies in the Covenant of Mayors here.
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