Establishment of a Sustainable Energy Action Plan Case Study of a Municipality in Lebanon

Abstract

Climate change caused by increasing greenhouse gas (GHG) levels released in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuels is threatening our ecosystem. A radical change in the behavior of humanity is thus needed urgently. One of the major challenges is to replace our current energy systems with sustainable systems in the face of environmental degradation. For this purpose, and as part of the European initiatives, the Covenant of Mayors is enabling municipalities, cities and regions to carry out actions in the fields of energy and climate. In this framework, a newly-developed tool, the SECAP-SSP or Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan–Self Sufficient Program, is applied by the Municipality of Hammana-Lebanon (standard process) in order to design its Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plan (SECAP) and ensure compliance with the Covenant of Mayors. This case study has resulted in a broad understanding of how to use this tool, or even to show that SECAP-SSP has greatly simplified the task compared to the conventional tools that have been used before. It should be noted that SECAP-SSP can be applied by any municipality in Lebanon and can be extended to suit the South-Mediterranean context. Every authority could create its “SECAP” space online. The various human activities in all sectors (residential, tertiary, industry, transportation, agriculture, electricity generation, etc.) involving energy consumption as well as greenhouse gas emissions are the specific data that the user must enter. The structure of the software facilitates the work to be done in each sector. Other data on climate, the availability of renewable energy and the current price of fossil fuels are provided by the tool. Indicators (economic, environmental and potential) to achieve optimization are calculated by the tool. In the end, SECAP-SSP established a Baseline Emission Inventory (BEI) for the authority as well as it suggested the SECAP, feasible and profitable both economically and environmentally.