For climate policy to be implemented successfully, decisions on the local and regional level are crucial. A key instrument of the EU to drive progress on this level is the Intelligent Energy Europe programme which provides start-up funding for local and regional energy agencies. In cooperation with Matrix Insight, Ecologic Institute evaluated the impact of the programme and developed recommendations on future improvements. The final report is available for download.

Main findings of the report include:

• Energy agencies are of local value because they provide information and technical assistance to energy users, and policy advice to public authorities, and facilitate the development of local sustainable energy markets.
• Independence and not for profit status are important assets for energy agencies as they need to provide credible, high quality information, advice and assistance to a variety of stakeholders.
• Many of these activities require a long-term mandate and corresponding commitment from public authorities, including sustainable financial support.
• There is significant demand among a number of public authorities for the creation of energy agencies.
• EU support complements, rather than replaces, other sources of funding, and the number of energy agencies would be significantly smaller without IEE funding.
• However, securing new sources of funding after IEE finding ends is a major concern for existing agencies.  
• Information flows between agencies and EU policy makers (both bottom-up and top-down) need to be better structured and resourced. Existing feedback tools could be adapted to make bottom-up communication more effective.
• A simple and transparent evaluation and monitoring scheme could make this success more transparent to agencies themselves and to their stakeholders.

The project team carried out a web-based survey, 12 in-depth case studies and a number of expert interviews in order to assess the role of local and regional energy agencies, their core activities and institutional set-up. The main aim was to explore the added value of agencies set up with EU support and to reassess how the programme could be adapted in the future given the changing needs at local level. The study covered the EU Member States, the EEA Member States and Croatia.

The final report is available for download on the European Commission Website.