Feedback Report

Feedback report

Peer advice Yambol, Bulgaria Energy efficiency in buildings

Report produced by CASCADE project

Author: Burgas Municipality

Version: 1

CASCADE is an EU-funded project led by EUROCITIES which aims to design and deliver large-scale networking and mutual learning actions on local energy leadership among EUROCITIES members. The CASCADE consortium is composed of: EUROCITIES, Wuppertal Institut, Koucky & Partners and the following cities: Amaroussion, Amsterdam, Birmingham, Burgas, Edinburgh, Eindhoven, Gateshead, Genoa, Gijon, Malmo, Mannheim, Milan, Nantes, Stockholm, Sunderland, Tampere, Terrassa, Venice and Warsaw.

The CASCADE project is co-financed by the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme. The sole responsibility for the content of this report lies with the authors. It does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the European Union. Neither the EACI nor the European Commission is responsible for any use that may be made of the information contained therein.

www.cascadecities.eu

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

CONTENTS

1. Introduction ...... 4

2. Participants ...... 4

3. The advice-giving ...... 5

4. Evaluation of the visit ...... 7

5. Conclusions ...... 8

Annexes ...... 9

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

1. Introduction

Representatives of Burgas Municipality visited Yambol on 18 December 2013 and on 12 March 2014 in order to provide feedback in the field of energy efficiency in buildings.

Yambol was selected because of its proximity with Burgas Municipality, as an important metropolitan city within the South-East Region and because of the similarity of challenges that both cities are facing.

Burgas municipality maintains traditional cooperation relationship with the Municipality of Yambol as both cities participate as partners in a couple of national and international projects. Thus it was possible to organise a focused group including experts from different departments in perfect coordination.

2. Participants

1st visit 2nd visit CASCADE city Burgas Jana Koleva, chief expert, European Jana Koleva, chief expert, Municipality policies and programmes department European policies and Petya Bakalova, Burgas Municipality, BIB programmes department department Petya Bakalova, Burgas Georgi Grudov, Burgas Municipality, BIB Municipality, BIB department department Georgi Grudov, Burgas Municipality, BIB department Peer advice city Yambol Ventsislava Petrova, chief expert, Kalin Minkov – senior expert, Strategies and Programmes Department; Budget and finance Department; Maria Paspaldjieva – chief expert, Diana Todorova, senior expert, Strategies and programmes Department; Municipal property Department; Tanya Ivanova, junior expert, Strategies Sevdalina Peeva, chief expert, and Programmes Department; Environmental protection Galina Karadjova, junior expert, Strategies Department; and Programmes Department; Galina Karadjova, junior expert, Radostina Peeva, senior expert, Spatial Strategies and Programmes planning and construction Department; Department; Diana Todorova, senior expert, Municipal Ventsislava Petrova, chief expert, property Department; Strategies and Programmes Niezi Ashikov, chief expert, Environmental Department; protection Department; Katrin Maznikova – senior expert, Kalin Karushkov, senior expert, Spatial Spatial planning Department planning and construction Department; Stara Zagora Municipality Sevdalina Peeva, chief expert, Daniela Genova – senior expert, Environmental protection Department; Transport and infrastructure

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

Daniela Genova – senior expert, Transport Department; and infrastructure Department; Kalin Minkov – senior expert, Budget and finance Department; Petya Zhielyazkova - senior expert, Budget and finance Department; Dimitrina Ivanova – senior expert, Municipal property Department Petar Todorov – chief expert, Strategies and Programmes Department

3. The advice-giving

3.1. The peer advice city:

Yambol is a city in the south-east region of Bulgaria, an administrative centre of Yambol Province. It lies on both banks of the river Tundzha in the historical region of Thrace. Its total land area is 91 km2. As of February 2011, the city has a population of 74.132 inhabitants. In combination with Tundzha Municipality, of which the city is the administrative centre, the population is 98,287. It is located 77 km from the Black Sea, south of the Burgas-Sofia high way. Industry is the most important sector in the economy of Yambol including the following sub-sectors: food processing, chemical industry, engineering and metalworking, textile and knitting industry, apparel industry. In Yambol new industries are developed, such as the production of automotive electrical parts and recycling of plastic products. The region is recognised as one of the largest agricultural producers in the country.

Yambol is not a signatory of the Covenant of Mayors and does not have a Sustainable energy action plan or an energy strategy. Some measures and actions related to energy efficiency and climate are integrated in existing documents, for example in the Municipal development plan 2014-2020.

Yambol started the implementation of new projects for refurbishment of kindergartens and schools financed under Regional Development Operational Programme.

3.2. First peer advice visit

During the first visit, Burgas presented the CASCADE project – the partners, the objectives and the activities. Then the four peer-to-peer learning methods were presented, and Burgas explained their experience gained through the peer-to-peer review in Nantes regarding urban transport, the study visit in Gateshead regarding energy efficiency of buildings, the study visit in Terrassa regarding the Sustainable mobility plan and the mentoring visit in Burgas related to sustainable mobility and urban transportation.

After the presentation of the different peer-to peer methods, there was a discussion about the particularity of each method and on how different methods have been developed to answer

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

concrete needs of each peer. It was agreed that at least two of the methods – study and mentoring visits - are applicable in national or at least regional context, as cities are facing similar challenges and applying similar measures.

The group talked about climate change and occurring undesirable phenomena directly affecting public health, infrastructure and the environment as a whole. The Municipality of Yambol has undertaken some sporadic measures in the field of prevention and mitigation, now trying to step forward and anticipate with some adaptation measures. Energy efficiency in buildings and districts is mentioned in strategic documents by Yambol municipality; thus the city tries to deepen the political commitment on this issue and to foresee further development of the local legislation. Burgas Municipality explained the role of the Covenant of Mayors, its long-term Strategy for sustainable energy development 2020 and the related SEAP 2011-2013.

Yambol is facing environmental challenges as all modern developed industrial cities. The refurbishment of the public administrative and educational buildings is a core issue, but also the refurbishment of private dwellings. Lack of financing is one of the most important problems. Other issues are related to spatial planning, municipal property and lack of public private partnerships (PPPs). Another issue is the lack of involvement and awareness of citizens on how important and useful energy efficiency of buildings is for the energy use in general and for decreasing GHG emissions.

The advice from Burgas was related first of all to funding opportunities and to public-private partnerships. Upcoming investments in public and private buildings planned for the near future should be consistent with the city’s long-term goals and visions. The Municipality of Yambol should develop an innovative pilot project in the field of energy efficient buildings, in which the city acts as a role model for citizens and also for private investors. Also, the city should develop a comprehensive long-term strategy for energy and climate policy (e.g. SEAP) with established targets and actions addressing energy efficient buildings and districts.

During the visits, the cities used Benchmark 1 – Energy efficient buildings and districts. All the key factors were discussed. The importance of strong political commitment and leadership was stressed and Burgas insisted on the need of applying coherent, holistic and integrated methods while developing local strategies and policies, and of adopting an SEAP. The urban development plan/city master-plan should take into account the need to promote energy efficient buildings and districts as well as efficient energy supply systems for the building sector. The importance of funding opportunities and different financial instruments was also discussed.

The CASCADE benchmark was of huge importance as it provides a framework for the peer advice visit; all the key factors were useful and allowed to comment on the climate and energy policies of Yambol.

3.3 Second peer advice visit

Yambol started examining the possibility of further developing its internal legal framework as to consolidate its normative basis, and introducing adequate energy efficiency measures in existing

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

documents using a horizontal approach. Since climate change and decreasing GHG emissions are problems that must be tackled as a whole, sporadic actions should be avoided. Thus, some steps were made towards considering becoming a member of the Covenant of Mayors, towards deepening the PPPs and raising public awareness regarding energy efficiency of buildings.

The CASCADE benchmark is the basic tool used for assessing the implementation of energy policies in the city of Yambol as it is very well structured and represents a useful tool for planning the further steps in the process of improving energy management at the local level.

Gradually, when achieving enough advancement in the whole process of consolidating the legal framework, some indicators of performance will be established as to measure progress in improving the energy policies in Yambol. The city will then start preparing its membership for the Covenant of Mayors and will develop a SEAP which will include the necessary steps as to follow the progress made. Furthermore, Yambol will try to introduce a monitoring system for the consumption of energy of all municipal buildings in order to be able to measure the decrease in energy use after the implementation of refurbishment measures.

Yambol is planning to update its legal framework in the field of energy efficiency and thus strategically develop new integrated policies. The city plans to introduce long term actions related to sustainable management of energy in the agglomeration. Refurbishment of existing public and private buildings is a priority, but Yambol has the intention to adopt some regulation regarding minimum compulsory requirement related to new constructions and tending to zero energy buildings.

Peer advice visit was as useful for Burgas as for Yambol; experts from both cities can jointly tackle common challenges as they are working on similar issues. Burgas Municipality is a member of the Covenant of Mayors, has solid legal framework in the field of energy efficiency and has achieved important progress in implementing various measures related to decreasing GHG emissions and adaptation to climate change. Sharing with Yambol was beneficial for Burgas Municipality as it had an external evaluation of its efforts and tips on how to further improve its actions. Yambol was satisfied with being inspired by the example of Burgas and considers adopting similar actions in concrete fields.

The cooperation between the cities will continue as Yambol will make a study visit and the city of Burgas will be able to deliver concrete advices as Burgas has already realised numerous projects in the field of energy efficiency of buildings. Burgas can show good practices of refurbishment of municipal buildings, of public-private partnerships for the refurbishment of private dwellings, and of some additional initiatives related to green roofs within the city.

4. Evaluation of the visit

During the second peer advice visit, evaluation forms were distributed to the participants, and all of them filled in the forms sharing their impressions and experiences regarding the visits. In total, 7 forms have been collected.

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

The overall assessment is positive; the peer advice visits have met the expectations and needs of peers, and have delivered useful knowledge and information which will be used by peers in their job. Experts from Yambol had prepared for the visit and representatives from different departments took part in the visit, demonstrating sound knowledge in relevant fields. They are all satisfied with the balance between the time and effort they put into preparing the visit and the results and learning efforts received. As there were representatives from Strategies and programs Department, Municipal property Department, Environmental protection Department, Spatial planning and construction Department, Transport and infrastructure Department, and Budget and finance Department, the topics tackled during the visits were of particular value for each participant. According to the evaluation results, the peer advice process was very well structured and the CASCADE benchmark is very useful. Preliminary information was good; peers rather prefer direct exchange and explanation of the issues. There was a high degree of interaction and networking during the visit and a lot of information was received and exchanged. All the peers consider that new information has been conveyed that will contribute to an acceleration and improvement of local sustainability energy management, and appreciated the level of networking and learning achieved.

5. Conclusions

• Yambol and Burgas are facing common challenges related to decreasing GHG emissions and adaptation to climate change, as the public properties and in particular municipal buildings are old and have not been renewed for a long time or at all. Both cities also have important districts with a high concentration of population living in common buildings that have never been refurbished, with very low level of energy efficiency. Yambol needs to further develop the existing legal framework and introduce relevant regulatory measures related to improving energy efficiency as a whole and in particular in the field of energy efficiency of buildings and districts. Thus, the city will be able to adopt adequate actions in order to tackle the issues related to energy use, introduce coherent measures to reduce GHG emissions and tackle issues in a holistic manner. • Burgas Municipality shared their experience in the field of funding opportunities, development of strategic documents such as SEAP and an Energy efficiency strategy and underlined the importance of signing the Covenant of Mayors and fixing long term objectives in the area of sustainable energy management. • Yambol started a step-by-step process in assessing the current situation, establishing a list of priorities and concrete measures to implement in order to achieve a consolidation of its normative basis and long term actions leading to sustainable energy management at the local level. • The four methods of peer–to–peer learning were presented in detail which offered Yambol and Burgas the opportunity to agree on organising a study visit. Thus, Burgas will be able to show concrete results related to refurbishment and climate adaptation measures.

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

Annexes

1. Participants list

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

2. Action plan

ACTION PLAN Actions to be taken after the 1st peer advice visit - Start investigating new funding opportunities under national, European and international financial instruments such as UNDP, KIDSF, etc. - Try to establish and successfully develop public-private partnerships in the field of refurbishment of private dwellings - Think about doing some pilot projects as to set an example an become a role model for citizens and for private investors - Examine the possibility of joining the Covenant of Mayors initiative and develop a SEAP - Review its local legislation and try to adapt it by introducing some legal aspects related to energy efficiency and climate change adaptation.

Planned calendar All those actions will be undertaken before 12 March 2014 – i.e. before the second peer advice visit. Funding opportunities will be a continuous process; the establishment of PPP is urgent but also a continuous process – it will start immediately and continue in the future; start investigating the

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria

possibility for the development of a pilot project as soon as possible and continue also in future; the decision to join or not the Covenant of Mayors will be adopted before the end of September and same thing for the SEAP; the legislative framework review is planned to end by August 2014.

3. Photo

4. Presentations

(see folder ‘Annexes’)

April 2014 CASCADE Feedback report – Peer advice in Yambol, Bulgaria