Accelerating the Transition of Local Authorities through Support and Training

Introduction

Climate change concerns and the energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine highlighted the need for capacity building, and climate action has taken on a new urgency, as it has now become a fight against high costs and even a potential shortage of energy.

Project Overview

AT LAST will make European cities and communities stronger and more effective in putting their climate ambitions into practice. The AT LAST project aims to structurally speed up and scale up the implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP) across Europe, by focusing on small and medium-sized cities - i.e., the ones that are not involved in the EU missions.

Approach

The approach is based on the importance of:

• Cross-sectoral integration
• Governance
• Financial innovation

These elements are essential to create climate-neutral and robust cities. Building on the resources developed in international networks and programmes, AT LAST reaches out to 25 local governments and offers them a program of capacity building, networking, and support. The aim is to not only implement current energy and climate action projects but also enhance and strengthen capability for future cycles of planning and implementation.

Methodology

The logic of AT LAST is based on:

1. Reviewing best practices
2. Turning them into adapted training curricula
3. Running a number of local pilot networks
4. Scaling up through an active network of partners

Strategic Partnerships

All partners are in AT LAST for strategic reasons. Each one has a mission to tackle climate change in their own regions and often also beyond. We are all working on a massive increase in the number of authorities willing and able to actively implement climate actions.

Pushing the AT LAST networks and tools to at least 100 municipalities is an essential part of that aim.

Outreach Efforts

That is why we (pro)actively reach out to thousands of municipalities all across Europe, through our own networks, through national organisations, and through the membership base of Energy Cities.