Practice Details

SITUATION BEFORE THE INITIATIVE BEGAN

Before the Agenda 21 began Noáin–Valle de Elorz District Council, there was no awareness-building of energy saving and efficiency issues, much less climate change. Whenever a new building or renovation work was done in the district, a heating system fitted or electrical equipment changed, energy saving and efficiency criteria were not taken into account. Nor did the local authority have any renewable-energy installations  of its own.

ESTABLISHMENT OF PRIORITIES

This initiative has two main priorities:

-          Energy saving and efficiency in Noáin–Valle de Elorz

-          Combating climate change on a municipal scale

These priorities were fixed via the Agenda 21 Public Participation Forum, which prioritised the Agenda 21 Action Plan initiative "Energy Efficient Noáin–Valle de Elorz” as a high priority.

The reason for choosing these two priorities was that the problem of climate change, and by extension the energy issue, was considered to be the main environmental problem that the world currently faces.

FORMULATION OF OBJECTIVES AND STRATEGIES 
The main objective is to contribute towards halting climate change from the ambit of local government.

To achieve it, the following strategies are being followed:

-District Energy Plan

-Fostering renewable energies as a key alternative in order to reduce dependence on fossil energies.

-Awareness-building and public participation for residents in Noáin–Valle deElorz to also get involved to combat climate change.

-Fostering sustainable mobility (Valle de Elorz bus service, Valley Paths Network, Noáin–Pamplona cycle-track project, etc.)

-Increasing CO₂ sinks in the district through by reforesting

-District Climate Change Office

-Partnership with the Navarra Environmental Resources Centre to support and provide resources for the District Climate Change Plan

All these strategies have been established by the Agenda 21 Committee (composed of two politicians and two technicians) with contributions from the Public Participation Forum.

MOBILISATION OF RESOURCES

Since 2004 the Noáin–Valle de Elorz District Council has been securing resources to undertake actions to build awareness, save energy and improve energy efficiency.

Through the departments of industry and the environment and the Navarra Environmental Resources Centre Foundation (with the European Soust energy project) funding has been obtained for energy audits, the District Energy Plan, renewable-energy installations, the Valle de Elorz bus service, awareness-building campaigns,reforestation projects, tree-line planting, environmental-volunteer days, etc.Many of these initiatives have been 100% subsidised, with grants of 30–50% for the remainder.

Two technicians from the council’s Gardening and Landscaping Department and Agenda 21 have been assigned to coordinate and manage this Climate Change Plan and directly implement several of these actions.

With regard to human resources, for various awareness-building actions the members of several local associations have been mobilised (e.g. Lykos Scout Group and Pensioners’ Club.

PROCESS

A District Climate Change Plan is a transversal plan that covers many ambits. It therefore involves the local authority, local business and local people. Within the council’s ambit, work began with several ad hoc actions, including three energy audits of different facilities and several reforestation project.Several of the actions included in the audits were then implemented, together with public awareness-building: a wall calendar, an exhibition on climate change, reforesting with volunteers, etc.

In 2006, thanks to the actions being implemented by the local council to improve energy saving and efficiency, the Navarra Environmental Resources Centre Foundation (CRANA) selected the district to participate in the European Soust energy project, via which a District Energy Plan was drafted to cover all the municipal premises. This Plan has four areas of action (energy saving and efficiency; fostering renewable energies; integrating energy-efficiency criteria into municipal polices; and awareness-building, dissemination and promotion) covering 143 projects in all. In early 2007, when the Energy Plan ended, the measures that it included began to be implemented.

To underline the Noáin–Valle de Elorz District Council’s main objective when undertaking these actions, it was decided to bring them all, together with the reforestation projects, under the umbrella title of “District Climate Change Plan”. In June 2008, to further strengthen the plan, a partnership agreement was entered into with CRANA and the District Climate Change Office was opened.

With regard to public participation, hundreds of people have been attracted, made aware and become involved through the Public Participation Forums, environmental-volunteer days, energy saving and efficiency workshops and such programmes as CRANA’s Kyoto Homes, in which 90 families have participated.

Thus,the participation of the various local-authority departments and local population has been actively sought throughout the process.

RESULTS ACHIEVED

-31,169 trees have been planted outside the urban areas

-The Valle de Elorz district bus service is becoming increasingly popular. The daily average currently stands at 32 users, servicing a population of approximately 950 people.

-The council workers are increasingly aware of the need to include energy-efficiency criteria in their actions, buying, etc.

-With regard to the local population, there is greater awareness and keenness to get involved in actions to combat climate change.

-Where as in 2004 there were no renewable-energy installations at all, in 2009 there were eight in operation (three solar-heat installations, two photovoltaic, one geothermal and two biomass).

-However, the key indicator being used for this project is the Council’s annual energy consumption:

Despite the efforts made to reduce energy consumption in recent years, this is not what the figures show.  This is because over the last three years Noáin–Vallede Elorz has undergone a major property boom, resulting in the public-lighting system being extended and new municipal buildings being opened, such as the music school, district kindergarten and new local police headquarters. The population has also increased from 4.496 in the 2004 census to 6,809 in 2008.

If the consumption data is considered per installation, we find that the installations where corrective energy measures have been implemented have indeed reduced their energy costs.

SUSTAINABILITY

The District Climate Change Plan is clearly striving for environmental sustainability in Noáin–Valle de Elorz by reducing the district’s dependence on non-renewable resources, particularly energy from fossil fuels, which isresponsible for global warming.

With regard to financial sustainability many of the projects undertaken— audits, drafting the Energy Plan, Kyoto Homes project, mobile postercampaign, etc. — have been fully funded by CRANA, with the only cost to thedistrict council being assigning a technician to coordinate the projects. Theother actions undertaken have mostly been funded at 10–50% of their cost, withthe remainder being allocated from the municipal budget.

All of them, however, are highly sustainable economically, since as someare for energy saving by both the local authority and local residents, whileothers are for energy production, the benefits are not only environmental butalso economic, since once the investments have been amortised they willgenerate money or at least reduce current expenses.

The reforestation measures, however, are sustainable in a different way,since environmentally they contribute both towards capturing CO2 and improvingthe local landscape and biodiversity, while socially they help to improve thepopulation’s self-esteem, and economically, in the long term these new forestedmasses can be exploited sustainably on the local council’s advice.

LESSONS LEARNED

Oneof the main lessons learned has been the realisation that initiatives of thistype are long-term actions that call for a considerable amount of patience,because in many cases the measures being applied are related to changes inpolicy, habits and awareness of council workers and the public at large. Inother words, it’s definitely a long-distance race.

Transversalityis key for any plan of these characteristics. It is important for there to be acouncil department to coordinate, but it will not succeed unless information andawareness about climate change and the actions being undertaken aredisseminated to all the other departments. Without true transversality, councilworkers are unlikely to incorporate energy saving and efficiency criteria intotheir day-to-day actions.

Also,when undertaking an initiative of this type it is important to have sufficientbudgetary resources for those projects that call for an economic investment,although it is not absolutely essential. In most cases, awareness-building andthe changing of habits are the measures that can achieve the greatest energysavings. There is little point in improving a heating system or insulation inan office building if the users’ only response is to wear fewer jumpers inwinter.

TRANSFERS

Implementinga District Climate Change Plan is an initiative which, once adapted to theactual situation in each district or entity, is easy to transfer. The key is tobe willing to incorporate energy saving and efficiency measures and criteriainto the entity’s policy and be able to count on external support to help andadvise on the process — a role that is played in Navarra by the EnvironmentalResources Centre Foundation.

Itis also important to start little by little, such as with an energy audit on agiven installation and with awareness-building campaigns for the general publicand the entity’s own workers.

Sinceearly 2008 Noáin–Valle de Elorz District Council, through its Agenda 21technicians, has been helping Ansoain District Council to implement its ownenergy-saving strategy, liaising with several of the entity’s technicians,explaining the process followed in Noáin and putting them in contact with CRANA.