Concentration or dilution?

No doubt it is good that the European Union is able to enroll as many as possible into the forces to make positive changes for the future. Now the “Covenant of mayors” is underway, and it is certainly good to secure commitments from high-level politicians and important cities all over Europe.

But why is there not a stronger connection with the Concerto-project that really covers the full scope of technology, policy-making and customer response? Yes, we need as many hands as we can find; yes, we need high level commitment, but do we not also need to make full use of all experience that can be found?

Concerto is a profound project with 45 municipalities already directly involved and several more adjoined as observers, both other communities and several academic institutions. They cover a truly broad spectrum of technologies both for demand and supply side, but they also cover an even more important category of issues, the aspects of decision making and of user attitudes when new technologies shall be put in place. This knowledge should be a natural and integral part of the job when mayors are enrolled. Unless, of course, the mayors are there only to shine!

Concerto brochure

Some years ago, Energi-Citées took an initiative to arrange study-tours to important municipalities. This is an interesting way to attract politicians and establish more and newer forums for information exchange. Let us hope that something similar can be arranged to glue all the experiences together rather than making them stand alone on their own turf.