PROJECT DESCRIPTION
BACKGROUND
Climate change concerns and energy crisis due to the war in Ukraine highlighted the need of capacity building and climate action has taken on a new urgency, as is has now become a fight against high costs and even a potential shortage of energy. AT LAST will make European cities and communities stronger and more effective in putting their climate ambitions into practice. The AT LAST project aims to structurally speed up and scale up the implementation of Sustainable Energy and Climate Action Plans (SECAP) across Europe, by focusing on small and medium-sized cities - i.e., the ones that are not involved in the EU missions. The approach is based on the importance of cross-sectoral integration, governance and financial innovation to create climate neutral and robust cities. Building on the resources developed in international networks and programmes AT LAST reaches out to 25 local governments and offers them a program of capacity building, networking and support, with an aim to not only implement current energy and climate action projects but also enhance and strengthen capability for future cycles of planning and implementation. The logic of AT LAST is based on the reviewing of best practices, turning them into adapted training curricula, running a number of local pilot networks and scaling up through an active network of partners. All partners are in AT LAST because of strategic reasons. Each one has a mission to tackle climate change, in their own regions and often also beyond. We are all working on a massive increase in the number of authorities willing and able to actively implement climate actions. Pushing the AT LAST networks and tools to at least 100 municipalities is an essential part of that aim. That is why we (pro)actively reach out to thousands of municipalities all across Europe, through our own networks, through national organisations and through the membership base of Energy Cities.