SUDEP South presented its methodology, ‘From policy to practice-City partnership as a benchmark of excellence in the Southern Mediterranean’ in the climate change sector roundtable organized by the Committee of the Regions with the occasion of the 5^th Assises of Decentralized Cooperation. Naceur Hammami, Team Leader of this European Union funded project, presented the achievements of the project and exchanged the best practises learned through the implementation of this programme.  

Three municipalities participating in the SUDEP South programmed were present as testimony of the challenges and success of this project. The mayors of Baakline and Chefchaouen and the Head of Environmental unit of Eilat were invited to share with the present their impressions and experience of this local to global initiative. “SUDEP has been just the first step and a lever for new energy efficiency projects in our city” declared Mohamed Sefiani, mayor of Chefchaouen. For Abdallah Ghouseini, mayor of Baakline, the project “has provided the municipality with tools to sustain the energy efficiency momentum”. Assaf Admon, representing the Eilat municipality, indicated “how important is for a city like theirs to involve the private sector on tackling energy inefficiencies”.  

More than 50 people participated in the discussion and exchanged best practises with their counterparts coming from Central America, Sub Saharan Africa and Eastern Partnership countries.

 

European Commission feedback on implementation experiences

SUDEP South Support Mechanism took this opportunity also to report and brief different representatives from the European Commission services on the current challenges and successes of the participating municipalities on the last two years. The three representatives present brief EC officials from DG NEAR, DG Clima, DG DEVCO and DG Energy on their impressions for future actions.

The SUDEP-South project began in early 2015 with 12 cities in 6 countries of the southern Mediterranean. The objective of the SUDEP Programme is to assist local authorities in responding to the sustainable energy challenges and to enable them to implement sustainable energy actions leading to energy savings, energy efficiency and more use of renewable energy sources such as solar energy.

SUDEP support mechanism activities are mainly focused on:

1. Assistance to local authorities and reinforcing their capacities and their partners in the implementation of the demonstration projects.
2. Promotion for the replication of innovative actions and the visibility of the programme’s results.
3. Creation of an enabling environment for the exchange of good practices between project beneficiaries.
4. And finally the development of their own local strategies to ensure widespread dissemination and sustainability of their projects.