Through its European Climate Law and Green Deal, the EU has set itself the objective to achieve climate neutrality by 2050 and set an intermediate target for 2030 to achieve at least a 55% reduction in greenhouse gas. One of the key challenges for achieving these objectives will be the decarbonisation of the heating and cooling (H&C) sector as energy for H&C represents almost 50% of the EU’s total gross final energy consumption and the majority still comes from fossil fuels.

The transition of the H&C sector requires resources and expertise that not all municipalities have access to. For this reason, ICLEI in partnership with the European Climate Foundation (ECF) organised the Strategic Heating and Cooling Support Package, which have produced a series of case studies and policy recommendations. The programme brought together European cities to peer-exchange on five specific topics relevant for the development of more efficient and renewable H&C systems:

1. Strategic municipal heat planning in times of the energy crisis
2. Energy community driven H&C projects
3. Partnership models and finance of new and refurbished H&C infrastructure
4. Procurement of H&C plants and solutions
5. H&C resilience through blue and green infrastructure

Case studies from the programme included European cities and regions working to decarbonise their H&C sector in order to promote and disseminate good practices. These included several ICLEI Members including Helsinki (Finland), Warsaw (Poland) and Barcelona (Spain) and covered topics such as district heating systems, strategic partnerships, and blue and green infrastructure.

The policy recommendations resulting from the modules, case studies and discussions point to the importance of introducing mandatory H&C planning for local authorities, which will enable easier and faster transition to sustainable H&C:

• Using scientifically verified digital tools can help optimise the H&C planning process, reducing the time and resources required, and should be promoted.
• Cooling is emphasised as an important topic in which municipalities lack adequate knowledge. Therefore there is a need to promote sustainable cooling solutions and use of Nature-based Solutions.
• Integrating heating, cooling and electricity sectors is necessary for higher deployment of renewable energy and excess heat sources and can be facilitated by improving the system flexibility through energy storage and higher share of district heating and cooling.
• Increasing public acceptance of sustainable H&C solutions can be achieved through the cooperation of all relevant stakeholders and the involvement of citizens, preferably through the establishment of thermal energy cooperatives.
• Enabling long-term investments and implementing a sustainable public procurement process that takes into account longer-term economic, environmental and social impacts will further drive the uptake of sustainable H&C.

To read the Policy Recommendations in full, click here.