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The COVID-19 pandemic has had a great impact on energy consumption in the world and many researchers have found very different energy consumption patterns. The goal of this study was to analyse the patterns of energy consumption in municipal buildings. Altogether data from 262 buildings from 4 municipalities were used and analysed. Results show very different energy consumption patterns for different types of buildings. In schools and education facilities the link between Covid-19 restrictions and energy consumption deviations are visible, but in administration and office buildings it is not the case. This leads to a conclusion that energy consumption in the buildings is not always linked to the level of occupancy of the building, meaning that there is room for improvements on energy management practices and procedures in the municipalities.

Since 2008 many municipalities in the European Union have taken part in the Covenant of Mayors (CoM) initiative and have developed Sustainable Energy Action Plans (SEAP) to contribute to climate change mitigation. To respond to new policy goals for 2030, the CoM has expanded its focus and since 2018 requires municipalities to cover climate adaptation actions. The main aim of this paper is to analyse the first experiences of six municipalities from Spain, Portugal and Latvia in upgrading their existing Sustainable Energy Actions Plans to Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP). SECAPs were developed through a participatory process involving all relevant local stakeholders, to gain maximum understanding and acceptance. Each municipality implemented climate adaption actions to demonstrate the need for adaptation and the ways it can be accomplished.

The European Union has taken the course to become climate neutral by 2050. To reach that target significant changes in all sectors are necessary, resulting in increasing regulatory pressure on energy producers, consumers and other sectors. Increasing legal requirements was also one of the reasons why the city of Daugavpils (population of 82 000) took a decision to implement an Energy management system (EnMS). In the boundaries of EnMS Daugavpils included more than 100 public buildings, public transportation and public lighting. This research paper presents results of the EnMS implementation, main drivers and barriers that Daugavpils has faced and overcome in the implementation process, and also assesses the benefits the city of Daugavpils has gained from EnMS. The success rate of EnMS in such an organisation as a municipality is based on the awareness and knowledge of the municipality’s employees and support from the municipality leaders. The case study of Daugavpils shows energy savings of 12 % in the public building sector after implementing EnMS.

The need for sustainable energy management at the municipal level is growing, in order to meet EU climate goals. Multiple initiatives have been launched to support municipalities in energy planning and strategy development process. Despite available support, research shows mixed results about implementation of plans and strategies. This research paper analyses what targets municipalities set, how they monitor implementation of their sustainable energy action plans (SEAPs) and searches for the most important factors that have enabled or hindered the implementation of local SEAPs at Latvia. The article shows that, in some cases, there is evidence that SEAP development is a project-based activity, supported by external experts. From municipal personnel point of view, it is a project that ends with approved SEAP, but not a part of their future daily routine. Eventually implementation of the plan is difficult, because municipalities lack experience in daily management of energy data, distribution of responsibilities and implementation of procedures. Municipalities also tend to exclude important stakeholders in their SEAPs, like, private sector, household sector and transport sector, which lead to lower targets and lower achievements in GHG reduction.

The current needs of sustainable urban development are rising. As the transport sector expands, emissions continue to rise. Due to their negative impact on human health and the environment, air quality requirements are becoming more and more stringent. At the same time, the amount of waste is increasing. Europe Union policies attempt to relieve the pressure that these two stressors place on urban systems as they themselves expand. Today different solutions are available to decrease greenhouse gas emissions, increase air quality and improve waste management systems. Among them, waste-to-biomethane for use in urban systems deserves more attention. The paper focuses on application of the concept of waste-to-biomethane and the case study of Valmiera is evaluated. The results show that the application of the waste-to-biomethane strategy can contribute to a complete substitution of diesel fuel in urban buses and gives savings of around 1,000 tCO2/year. The price of the biomethane was found to be the most sensitive input factor. It is suggested that it should not exceed 0.40 EUR/Nm3 for a fuel conversion project of a fleet of 10 vehicles. Such a price can be ensured, if dry fermentation technology is chosen for biogas production. However, from the sustainability perspective, wet fermentation is more preferable due to the introduction of a source-separated organic waste management system in the region and higher gas yields. Introduction of this alternative requires additional funds which is a question of policy-level decisions.

Non-residential buildings in the European Union consume more than one third of the building sector’s total. Many non-residential buildings are owned by municipalities. This paper reports about an energy saving competition that was carried out in 91 municipal buildings in eight EU member states in 2019. For each public building an energy team was formed. The energy teams’ activities encompassed motivating changes in the energy use behaviour of employees and small investments. Two challenges added an element of gamification to the energy saving competition. To assess the success of the energy saving competition, an energy performance baseline was calculated using energy consumption data of each public building from previous years. Energy consumption in the competition year was monitored on a monthly base. After the competition the top energy savers from each country were determined by the percentage-based reduction of energy consumption compared to the baseline. On average, the buildings had an electricity and heat consumption in 2019 that was about 8 % and 7 %, respectively, lower than the baseline. As an additional data source for the evaluation, a survey among energy team members was conducted at the beginning and after the energy competition. Support from superiors, employee interest and motivation and behaviour change as assessed by energy team members show a positive, if weak or moderate, correlation with changes in electricity consumption, but not with changes in heat consumption.