With over 170 members in 30 countries and representing more than 700 towns and cities, Energie-Cités is the association of European local authorities for the promotion of local sustainable energy policies.

From 2007 to 2009, Energie-Cités is under the Presidency of the City of Heidelberg (DE). Energie-Cités’premises are located in Brussels (BE) and Besançon (FR). A part of the team works in Freiburg-im-Brisgau (DE) and Paris (FR).

The Board of Directors of the association is represented by the 11 European cities:

• Bielsko-Biała (PL),
• Braşov (RO),
• Clermont-Ferrand (FR),
• Cork County (IE),
• Delft (NL),
• Heidelberg (DE),
• Kaunas (LT),
• Leicester (UK),
• Odense (DK),
• Roma (IT),
• Växjö (SE).

Why joining the Energie-Cités network?

Because 75% of all energy consumption in Europe occurs in urban areas, local authorities more than ever have a pivotal role to play. Taking action at local level will help you to:

• Reduce your energy consumption and energy bill whilst reducing local emissions and effluents,
• Stimulate local growth by making use of locally available resources,
• Be recognised as an innovative town or city.

All this is possible! Energie-Cités was established as an association of European local authorities in 1990 to put all this into practice.

Our main objectives

• to develop your initiatives through exchange of experiences, the transfer of know how and the organisation of joint projects,
• to allow you to benefit from our expertise in local energy strategies,
• to strengthen your role and skills in the sphere of energy efficiency, in the promotion of renewable and decentralised energy sources and in protection of the environment,
• to influence the policies and proposals made by European Union institutions in the fields of energy, environmental protection and urban policy.

Our main European projects

Energie-Cités builds European projects for helping its members to develop a local sustainable energy policy. Please take a look at our major actions at the moment:

BELIEF promotes the Sustainable Energy Communities concept at European scale, setting up Local Intelligent Energy Forums in 20 communities from 11 European countries,

BISE Forum on "Intelligent Energy in Municipalities of the New Member States and Candidate Countries". Local authorities from Central and Eastern European Countries (CEEC) work on sustainable energy issues,

Display™ European Campaign aims at encouraging European municipalities to publicly display the energy, water and green house gas emission performances of their municipal buildings,

European Mobility Week: from 16th to 22nd September European citizens have the opportunity to enjoy a full week of events dedicated to sustainable mobility. More than 1300 cities are involved in Europe,

IMAGINE is a long-term initiative of Energie-Cités, aiming to help communities to better prepare the energy future of their territories,

MODEL aims at helping local authorities from 8 New Member States and Candidate Countries to become models for their citizens by improving their practical capacities to better deal with current intelligent energy issues,

REVE Jura-Leman is a network of towns and cities for sustainable energy in the Jurassic Arc and the Lake Geneva Basin aiming to implement the European Energy Award® certification process in 8 pilot cities,

RUSE aims at “Redirecting Urban areas development towards Sustainable Energy” and its overall objective is to improve the use of Structural Funds - and other financial resources - in the urban projects of at least 4 New Member States,

SESAC is part of the broader CONCERTO initiative with the aim of accelerating innovation in renewable energy (RE) solutions, advance energy efficiency (EE) and systems for poly-generation linked together with concepts for eco-buildings.