Small Municipalities Engaged in Sustainable and Climate Responsive Planning: Evidences from UE-CoM

The Covenant of Mayors (CoM), a volunteer movement of local administrators established in 2008, has supported Municipalities to develop their Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAPs) and become energy and climate proof Municipalities. SECAP intended as an urban planning tool, allowed to EU Municipalities to develop adaptation/mitigation actions, facing the climate-change. Compared to this, the CoM started a new season of urban planning coupling the planning demand in terms of reduction of CO2 emissions and the adaptation/mitigation to climate-change with the implementation of sustainable territorial development objectives. The European Signatories of CoM at May 2021 are 6789, and the 4312 of them (in percentage 63%) are small municipalities (i.e. under 10000 inhabitants). This high percentage of small Municipalities related to total has highlighted how SEAPs have been intended as instruments used to plan and provide funding for ordinary interventions in the urban areas instead of institutional instruments (i.e., urban planning regulations, operational plans and programs established by National policies). Therefore, the paper suggests an overview at European level to exploit the engagement of the small Municipalities, specifying the commitment and the SECAP’s sectors chosen. It represents a useful framework interpreting the general results derived from the CoM official data and improving procedures related to the adaptation/mitigation climate-change in urban areas.