Background and objectives

Local planning for energy and climate is essential for an effective implementation of the energy transition, climate mitigation and adaptation. The framework of the Covenant of Mayors, launched by the European Commission in 2008, supports the development of local planning and action through the SECAPs (Sustainable Energy & Climate Plans) that municipalities, or group of municipalities, can voluntarily sign to commit to concrete mitigation and adaptation actions to achieve climate objectives by 2030 and/or 2050.

Developing and implementing a SECAP is an opportunity for integrated approaches, considering the multiple objectives addressed by SECAPs and their interactions with other areas of local policies. Municipalities have a key role to play in this context, for example by setting priorities for local actions, leading by example, raising awareness and engaging local stakeholders and citizen. This makes SECAPs a very relevant case for the implementation of the Energy Efficiency First (EE1st) principle, that is about guiding decision-making in an integrated way, and with the objective of selecting the options or pathways that can be the most beneficial to everyone.

Following the previous session about making SECAPs strategic, this session is focused on why and how to prioritize actions in SECAPs, through the example of the use of the SYNERGISE+ tool developed in the PROSPECT series of projects.

This session is jointly organized by PROSPECT CUBE and ENEFIRST+.

Agenda

15.00	Welcome and introducing PROSPECT CUBE	Giulia Viero (IEECP)
15.05	SYNERGISE+: how does it work? and what does it provide?	Giulia Fracassi (IEECP)
15.20	Q&A
15.25	Prioritizing actions in SECAPs with SYNERGISE+: the experience of Valladolid	Sonsoles Gonzalo Pitarch (Municipality of Valladolid, Spain)
15.40	Q&A and Open discussion
15.55	Upcoming events and activities about SECAPs	Giulia Viero (IEECP) and Patrizia Pistochini (ENEA)
16.00	End of the session

Further readings and resources

Proceedings of the previous session on making SECAPs strategic: https://ee1st.eu/resources/making-secaps-strategic-with-energy-efficiency-first-workshop-materials/

	https://h2020prospect.eu/ SYNERGISE+ tool
	https://ee1st.eu/ Italian pilot case  |  Proceedings of the workshop on EE1st in SECAPs
	https://eu-mayors.ec.europa.eu/ SECAP guidelines

Article just published about prioritizing SECAPs, following the PhD thesis of Mia Dragovic:

Dragović Matosović, M., Exintaveloni, D. S., & Pizzini, G. (2026). A participatory multi-criteria decision framework for prioritizing SECAP actions: evidence from European cities. Climate Policy, 1–17.