Action plans
Action plans were created at the end of the first part of the project as a tool to be used to monitor the results of the project. The activity plan for South Ostrobothnia, Finland had 7 actions.
ACTION ONE
Description: Helping the Regional Council define Energy related indicators for the Regional Strategy and to helping with the first follow up of these indicators.
Status: This activity was completed. The chosen energy indicators were:
- electricity consumption in South Ostrobothnia
- the use of wood fuels in heat and power utilities in South Ostrobothnia
- Green house gas emissions in South Ostrobothnia
- the production of renewable energy in South Ostrobothnia
The first follow-up was completed in fall 2019.
ACTION TWO
Description: Participate in the expert group to create the Regional implementation plan 2019-2020. As invited by the Regional Council.
Status: This activity was completed. The Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia held one hearing event on this topic and it was attended.
ACTION THREE
Description: Participating in the external expert team for mid-term evaluation of the Regional Strategy/Regional programme 2018-2021.
Status: This task was not completed. The mid-term evaluation did not take place during the project time-frame.
ACTION FOUR
Description: Impacting the new regional government in issues related to renewable energy, CO2 emissions and climate change.
Status: This action was not completed. A large change in local and regional government structure was planned to take place at the beginning of 2019. However, this did not happen, and the National government resigned a few months before elections.
ACTION FIVE
Description: Sharing inspiration from the identified Good practice “Sustainable Municipalities”.
Status: This action was completed. The Good Practice was identified during the first phase of the project and uploaded onto the Interreg Europe Good Practice Platform. Sustainable municipalities was presented at the Interregional Cooperation for Energy Transit event in Florence in June 2018. It was the topic of a Peer Review in the German speaking community in the East of Belgium in May 2019 and it has also been presented as an example for municipalities in other municipalities in our region.
ACTION SIX
Description: Providing energy related information for the single-family home builders platform being developed by Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences.
Status: This action was completed. We provided information for the platform in relation to deciding on the type of energy system to chose for your home, and the test version is currently running. In the first stage it will be used as a teaching aid and int the second stage it will be opened for consumers.
ACTION SEVEN
Description: Collection indicators for the Regional Energy and Climate Strategy of South Ostrobothnia.
Status: This action was completed. In cooperation with the Regional Council of South Ostrobothnia, a report on the indicators was compiled.
Policy Recommendations
Phase one of the project we handed a short document of policy recommendations to the Regional Mayor of South Ostrobothnia. The recommendations were as follows.
- The term “near ZEROCO2 building due to energy use” should be taken into use to accompany the term “near zero energy building”.
- The energy indicators written into the Regional Programme of South Ostrobothnia and the Energy and Climate Strategy of South Ostrobothnia should be followed and evaluated continuously.
- By supporting the concept of near ZEROCO2 buildings the Region of South Ostrobothnia can take important steps to-wards a carbon free region.
| Handing the policy recommendations to the Regional Mayor Antti Saartenoja and to MEP Anneli Jäätteenmäki. |
At least the second and third points of the recommendations have been put into action in our region.
What we are especially proud of
If asked which points in the project we are especially proud of, I’d have to highlight at least the active cooperation of our local stakeholder group, the positive reception of our identified good practice “Sustainable municipalities” and the impact we were able to have on our regional policy instrument would be the first.
Other points worth mentioning are the interest that Mr. Jyrki Kauppinen from the Ministry of Environment has shown by attending two of our events and the possibility to have Mrs. Anneli Jäättenmäki (MEP until 2019) attend our project meeting in Finland.
Thank you
As co-operation was essential for the success of the project, we thank the whole ZEROCO2 team and all the organisations and people that participated in our events and activities. The project has reached its end. But the road to reaching ZEROCO2 emission buildings still stretches out before us with more challenges and possibilities for success.
| ZEROCO2 partner countries. |
