Local Action

Matching good governance and climate change mitigation

by Pedro Ballesteros Torres
European Commission, DG ENER / A3
Initiator of the Covenant of Mayors

The Covenant of Mayors is a most successful network of mayors committed to the respect of the urban environment. It is the mainstream European movement involving local and regional authorities, voluntarily committing to increasing energy efficiency and use of renewable energy sources in their territories. By their commitment, Covenant signatories - representing more than 5000 cities in 48 countries - aim to meet and exceed the European Union 20% CO2 reduction objective by 2020. It has been translated into specific action plans http://www.covenantofmayors.eu/actions/sustainable-energy-action-plans_en.html.

Pedro Ballesteros is now expanding it to other continents and will deliver a message of pragmatic optimism about thrifty opportunities for better governance while mitigating climate change. He is Engineer in Food Industry from the Universidad Politécnica of Madrid, and has a MBA in Energy Business. He worked as consultant in energy and environment topics for the EU and United Nations from 1984 to 1994, at the European Commission since 1995. Before assuming his present duties he was responsible of the OPET Network for energy technologies, the network of local and regional energy agencies, the Intelligent Energy Europe programme, and the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign and the Covenant of Mayors. At present he is in charge of the EU-China Urbanisation Partnership, as well as the launch of a global Covenant of Mayors and energy relations with Latin America and India.

Venue :

Royal Academy of Belgium, Rubens auditorium, (Entrance D) Hertogstraat 1 rue Ducale B-1000 Brussels. Doors open at 17:30.

Compulsory Registration:
Admission is free, but electronic registration with appropriate form is compulsory.
Drinks: 15 € p.p. Free for Full members only.
Payments on account BE16 7470 0377 8074 before 29 September 2014.