“Climate leaders often don’t know they are leading the way”

Francisco Puente is General Manager at Escan Energy Consulting, an advising firm with sound experience in the sustainable energy sector, supporting utilities, industries, and the public sector in their energy needs.

REMARKABLE Climate Leaders builds a new leadership capacity across Europe. How would you describe a climate leader?

First of all, he/she should be a real leader, this means that works or cooperates with other leaders or people of their municipality and he/she leads technical matters and/or policy issues. Also, he/she provides support with empathy to the others to reach their aims and outstands as exemplary for other municipalities.
Secondly, he/she is a commitment to fighting against climate change, then knows the main targets for climate change, the (European, national and local) policies, and key measures that the municipality can implement for achieving the local targets. He/she thinks is possible to mitigate climate change and has the willingness to promote and carry out the measures.
Thirdly, the Climate Leader actively searches for the efficiency to reach the objectives and is directly involved in the measures to be applied, organizing the staff, coordinating the plans and

Why do regions in Spain need climate leaders?

The municipalities and the regions need climate leaders because they can support the plans and guide actions to mitigate climate change to achieve climate neutrality by 2050.

Climate leaders create the right environment within the local public bodies and with the other stakeholders (companies, neighbours,…) to persecute the municipal targets. They have a vision of how to reach the targets, can share it with others and reach a common understanding on the way to get there.

It is the case that in some municipalities there are real climate leaders but they don’t know they are so.

Francisco Puente on climate leaders

How does a climate leadership look like in practice in the Community of Madrid and beyond?

He/she is a proactive person who understands what the overall socioeconomic and environmental needs of the municipality are. Usually, a hard worker oriented to targets, empathic, and open-minded.

A climate leaders manages, coordinates or works on strategies plans, studies or projects related to climate change mitigation, usually related to building, industry, residential or agricultural/farming. He/she knows about renewables, energy efficiency and residues.

He/she is frequently in contact with other people to reach the climate neutrality challenges, searches for common initiatives with them provides support, and organizes meetings and events to share knowledge and experiences.

ESCAN has 35 years of experience in the energy sector, with many national and international references and cooperate in European projects. How does ESCAN help a climate leader achieve their goals?

At ESCAN, we provide guidance, information, and tools to reach climate neutrality in their municipalities, mainly through the Climate Leadership Programme, supporting the design and implementation of their Climate Neutrality Roadmaps and providing expert advice on the topics they find useful within this roadmap.

We facilitate networking among the municipalities, not only within the region but also with other leading municipalities in the surroundings that have developed good practices. We facilitate the creation of knowledge that can be used over the years by them or their successors.

We have to remember that mayors might change along the years, but Climate Neutrality Roadmaps will last for 20 or 30 years.

Francisco Puente

Some communities are lacking strong leadership that could help them achieve a robust response. Tell us what REMARKABLE can bring to local leaders and communities in Spain.

Local leaders have been engaged since the proposal stage, understanding that the final is not only the energy efficiency and renewable energy sources (RES) targets for 2020 or 2030 but the net emissions before 2050. The REMARKABLE Climate Leaders project was designed considering their needs.

REMARKABLE provides what society demands: more and better measures to reduce energy demand, promotion of renewable energy sources, the placement of the citizen in the centre of the energy system, and, in general, a change in the energy model. This mind-shift reaches the local leaders (mayors and others) as the neighbours and companies are demanding them to bring new initiatives.

The project provides actions that enable networking with other climate leaders to exchange experiences and learn from them. REMARKABLE is not based on political interests but on climate neutrality for all, thus there are many synergies and cooperation possible to speed up the process.

REMARKABLE provides a common practical programme (the Climate Leadership Programme) and tools (such as Climate Neutrality Roadmaps) to local leaders which do not exist in Spain at the moment. The project as well advises on how to turn the plans into real actions.