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24.750 (2021) |
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19,35 km2 |
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2005: 135.889t |
| 2030: 67.944t |
According to the population, Valmiera is the eighth largest city in Latvia, the Vidzeme region’s administrative and economic development, education, culture and sports centre. In the Municipal Development Program of Valmiera for 2022-2028, climate change policy (Green Deal) is defined as one of the horizontal priorities. In August 2022, prompted by the CEESEU project activities, local politicians decided the county municipality would join the European Covenant of Mayors.
Mitigation
Accordingly to the SECAP, by 2030, the city of Valmiera will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 50% compared to 2005. It was decided in an interdisciplinary working group.
Buildings owned by the municipality have the highest final energy consumption. It is planned to continue improving energy efficiency and saving measures to overcome this.
In Valmiera, 17.2% of heat energy is produced by fossil energy resources. Therefore municipality has decided to build a new wood chip boiler house. After the implementation of the project, it is planned to reduce CO2 emissions by up to 3042 tons per year and to expand the range of consumers of centrally supplied heat energy.
Some of the activities refer to territory planning and development documents. Public sector rules and regulations can stimulate sustainable development. For example, it is planned to develop a thematic study on the spatial development of wind and solar power plant parks and encourage the formation and operation of energy communities.
The city of Valmiera has had a certified energy management system since 2018; it has been decided to expand the municipality’s energy management system, gradually including the heat and electricity consumption of the institutions in the entire Valmiera County, incl. public street lighting.
Energy poverty
At least 1,860 people in Valmiera County are members of households exposed to energy poverty (approximately 3.4% of all county residents, which is currently below the average 7,5% indicator in the European Union). To understand the extent of the actual situation, targeted research will be conducted on the level of well-being of the population and the presence of energy poverty in households. It is clear that social benefits are a temporary solution, and the problem is complex; it must be solved interdisciplinary.
Actions towards sustainable energy management
The main activities for the next seven years include reducing the amount of energy consumed by using renewable energy technologies, changing the thinking and habits of the population, and expanding the energy management system throughout the county. It was concluded that it is crucial to promote green procurement and the construction of low-consumption wooden buildings. The municipality will purposefully work on the transition to using renewable energy resources of local origin in heat supply and electricity generation. It is necessary to educate the population, incl. motivating the participation of Valmiera County industrial companies in moving towards a circular economy and reaching climate neutrality by 2050.
„Participation in the European Covenant of Mayors and the municipality’s sustainable energy and climate action plan will be a tool for more successful attraction of external funding for improving the energy efficiency of buildings, introducing renewable energy technologies, as well as solving the energy crisis, energy poverty challenges and strengthening energy independence.”
The SECAP was created by VPR and supported by CEESEU project.
The entire document is available on the link below in Romanian language.
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The SECAP was implemented with the support of the CEESEU project. The CEESEU project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement GA: 892270. Disclaimer: The author of this content is solely responsible for its content, which does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, and neither EASME nor the European Commission is responsible for any use that may be made of this content. |
SECAP-EU
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The SECAP was implemented with the support of the CEESEU project. The CEESEU project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement GA: 892270. Disclaimer: The author of this content is solely responsible for its content, which does not necessarily reflect the views of the European Union, and neither EASME nor the European Commission is responsible for any use that may be made of this content. |